Miitopia: Invasion of the Lost Faces
by ButterHunter
Summary: Everything has gone horribly, horribly wrong. I just was going to play a game, but… now I'm LIVING that game! My family is in trouble, my friends are in trouble… everyone is in trouble, and only me and my look-alike can save it all! The world might be screwed…
1. When Games Invade

**Hello, readers.**

 **Now, if you've been reading my stories before, then I might be able to predict what your thinking.**

' **What the heck is this story doing in my inbox?'**

' **Why is Butter creating ANOTHER story?'**

' **What the heck is Miitopia?!'**

 **Well, I can answer at LEAST one of those questions here. Basically, this was a last minute inspiration that struck me like lightning.**

 **Besides, I LOVE Miitopia. I knew as soon as I beat the game I wanted to make a story of it somehow.**

 **Quick warning before we begin: this story will pretty much spoil the ENTIRE PLOTLINE of the game, so if you have ANY interest in playing it, DO NOT READ THIS STORY. You have been warned.**

 **Now, without further delay, let's travel to a world of Mii's…**

 **And a young man who very nearly ruined everything.**

* * *

Chapter 1: When Games Invade

…

Hello.

My name is Cameron.

You may know me as that guy who was on the news a while ago.

You may know me as the guy who saved the world.

But what you likely don't know is that I…

I was the guy who nearly CAUSED the world to be destroyed.

I didn't… look, I didn't want…

*sigh*

You know what…? How about I start from the beginning?

I'll tell you the real story.

What really happened.

It all started a sunny day in spring.

One thing that you should know about me. I'm a giant video game nerd, ESPECIALLY about things from Nintendo. Odds are if a new game gets released, I've already known about it for three months ahead of time. Not to mention I have a growing collection of amiibo filling up my shelf.

 **(Okay, true confessions time: that last thing was a lie. I have exactly five amiibo in my collection, but I do plan to get more.)**

So when I heard about the new game Nintendo was creating involving Mii's, monsters, and medals, I knew I just had to get my hands on a copy.

RPG's have always been my favorite type of games. There's just something so… so… appealing to me. Perhaps it's the rush of joy in my body when my characters reach a new level, or that these games are likely to have some sort of achievement system. Or maybe it's simply the ability to create my own character and become the star of the game. Take your pick.

Whatever the rhyme or reason, the day the game came out I rushed over to the nearest game store and bought a copy. For some reason, though, even though the game had JUST been released, there wasn't a crowd of people that were buying the game. I mean, I knew that there couldn't be many gamers where I live, but still, it was a new game. You'd think that there'd be at least a couple of people here, but the store clerks said I was the first one to buy the game all day.

When I got home, I prepared to enjoy myself. I laid back on my bed with a cold soda and popped the game out of the case. I turned on my Nintendo 3DS and quickly made sure my Mii character was exactly the way I wanted him. He was a little basic, but that's just my style. He looked more or less like me: brown eyes, messy brown hair, tall in height, and with a red shirt, my favorite color.

Once I was sure my character was to my liking, I closed Mii Maker and popped in the new game, Miitopia. The logo soon appeared on the top screen, and I could feel my excitement growing. It was time!

I pressed the A button and waited…

But then the entire handheld blinked off.

Confused, I grabbed the charger and plugged it into the wall. The orange charging light didn't turn on, even though it had worked just last night.

I was incredibly confused. Did Miitopia just break my system?

Then, as if the moment wasn't ALREADY weird enough…

The system started shaking violently.

Surprised, I dropped the handheld onto the far edge of my bed and scooted as far back as I could.

The system continued to shake, and noises started coming from it, almost like… laughing? And crying? And… so many other different voices and sounds…

The screen suddenly started glowing brightly white, the sounds amplifying three times over.

And suddenly, I passed out. I have no idea why. It just… happened.

When I woke up, nothing was right.

I was no longer in my house. I was in a green, colorful field, with plants and flowers dotting the area.

I had on my favorite shirt, which I had worn the previous day, freshly cleaned. It was, wah wah wah, a video game inspired shirt, that I had actually made myself.

My headphones were around my neck, and it was plugged into my 3DS, now in my hand. I was all-around dressed for a casual day at the store or something.

I slowly sat up, trying to get my bearings. What had just HAPPENED to me…?

Suddenly, I heard music come from my headphones. I looked down at the system, and I realized that the game was suddenly working.

I mean, it LOOKED like it at least. It was the title screen, with 'Miitopia' on it and music playing.

'What… what is happening…?!' I thought.

I tried to stand up to look around more, but I suddenly felt really sick the moment I tried. I sat back down, and the sickness went away just as fast as it came.

I looked back down at my game. The logo was still playing happy music, like nothing was wrong. But something was very clearly wrong.

However, I didn't really have much of an alternative, unless I wanted to walk around with the risk of throwing up everywhere. So I grabbed my stylus, put my headphones over one ear, and touched the start button.

A cutscene played out on the screen. But… this didn't look anything like I remembered.

Let me explain: when Nintendo released the demo to the game, I downloaded it, but I only watched the intro up to where you get to the world map. I didn't want to be spoiled at all about the plot.

But in the demo, the world of Miitopia looked like an island in the sea. Now… it looked almost EXACTLY like my state, surrounded by ocean!

Despite that, that cutscene played as normal.

'This is the world of Miitopia.' the game explained.

The view of Miitopia popped back to be just a simple picture in a frame, with a Mii sitting near it sipping a cup of what I guessed to be tea.

The screen again jumped to be another Mii watering flowers, and then one more time with two Mii's dancing together to some music.

'It is a world where every Mii can live together in peace and harmony.' the game explained.

'Or at least… it was.'

That's when the screen turned a shade of dark purple, and suddenly, the faces of the dancing Mii's flew right off their heads.

'The darkness came without warning…' the text read, jumping back to the Mii watering flowers. The purple soon washed over her, taking her face off too.

'A dark shadow threatening all of Miitopia!' the game cried, jumping to the tea drinking Mii. His face was taken, and his tea flew out of his cup in his terror, slowly blanket the entire picture of the Miitopia world.

From the now purple screen, faces started flying up into the sky, where a dark, shadowy figure was flying above, seemingly pleased. 'An unspeakably evil fiend started stealing everyone's faces!' the text read. 'And then, to add insult to injury…'

The figure thrust their massive hands downward, and all the faces flew downward.

They latched onto a bunch of other creatures, some with only eyes, some with only mouths, and some full faces.

'The fiend put the faces on monsters!' the text read, and the monsters chuckled with glee.

So did the shadowy figure. They laughed, and then they charged at the screen.

That's when the view changed to a field very similar to the one I was in right now. Slowly, the camera panned over to the side, where I could see a Mii walking.

'Behold, a simple traveler' the text read, before becoming a full view of the Mii.

Lo and behold, it was mine. And text came up, reading 'Cameron' in a fun little character banner. My Mii sighed, saying "Bit boring today…"

'Cameron is wandering around, going wherever the road takes him.' the text read.

It was at that point that Cameron's head tilted to the side, saying, "Hm? Who's that?"

He walked off screen, and the screen went black. I waited for the screen to come back, but then…

"Hello there. Are you alright?" a voice asked.

I jumped up, startled, my headphones falling off my head. I quickly turned, and was met with…

My… my Mii. Staring right at me. My eyes went as wide as dinner plates.

So did his.

"Wait… you look familiar…" he said, in my own voice.

"C… Cameron…?" I hesitantly asked.

My Mii was quiet. "...how did you know my name?"

"We… we have the same name." I explained, very confused about what is happening.

My look-alike studied me very carefully. "You… do bear a striking resemblance to me. Are you… my look-alike?"

"Look… alike?" I asked.

"There's a well-known legend among Mii-kind that they all have someone, somewhere, that they look exactly like. I always thought that it was just a legend, though…" my Mii explained.

I was having far too much trouble understanding what was going on. "Woah woah woah, hold on a minute. I… when… how…?"

It was then that my look-alike noticed the system I had in my hands. "Wait… is that…?"

I looked at my hands. The 3DS still had not moved from that blank screen.

"Where did you get that?" my Mii asked, extremely curious.

"I-I'm sorry, but… what the heck is going on here?!" I yelled, completely lost.

My Mii's eyes grew wide, saying, "Woah, woah, what do you mean?"

I slowly calmed down and, to the best of my ability, explained everything that had just happened. I spent so long explaining, a few rather large, pink butterflies came over to the nearby flowers.

"So… you bought a game called 'Miitopia'... and when you tried to play it, it started violently shaking and it flashed a bright light?" My Mii asked.

"Exactly. So… does that mean I'm in the game, or the other way around, or…?" I asked.

"Hmmm…" My look-alike hummed, in thought. He looked around a little bit while thinking. "I don't know…" he slowly stated.

He just so happened to glance up at the sky as he finished his thoughts, and suddenly he noticed something above him. "Huh?"

I looked up. Floating down from the sky, on what looked like a blue circle of light, was… a pair of Mii eyes.

The eyes slowly floated down to one of the pink butterflies that had flown in, circled it once, and then it flashed directly onto the butterfly.

When the light died down, the butterfly looked normal. "What the-?" I asked.

Then it turned around. And suddenly, now the eyes from that ball of light… were now ATTACHED to the butterfly!

They glared at us, startling my Mii so badly he ran away. I was frozen in place, completely and utterly lost at everything.

"M-my look-alike! RUN! Waaahhhh!" my Mii shouted at me, still running and screaming in fear. My legs unfroze and I quickly dashed after the Mii, the eyes on that insect still following me the entire way.

It was quite a long time before we stopped. By that time we both were properly lost. We had no idea how far we ran, nor where we ended up.

"*gasp* *wheeze* *pant*" I managed. I hated running with a burning passion. "What… what was that…?!"

"*gasp* I don't know…" my Mii gasped, recovering much quicker than me. "Where… where are we?" he asked.

I looked up to look around. "I don't know… none of this looks familiar to me at all." I responded.

My Mii continued to nervously look around, until he saw something. "Aha! Look!"

I looked in the direction he 'pointed' (more like gestured in a direction with his ball-shaped hand.).

A small town was built nearby. The nearest form of civilization for quite some time, it looked like.

The two of us looked at each other. "Guess we don't have much of an alternative." I remarked.

My Mii nodded, and the two of us sprinted for the town, though at a much more controlled pace.

I looked down at my 3DS along the way, and I was rather surprised. I saw my Mii, on what looked like the world map. A line connected where he was to where the town, now labeled as Greenhorne, was.

Experimenting, I tapped the town. The Mii on the map moved in that direction. I hit A, and the Mii entered.

"And here we are…" my Mii intoned next to me.

I looked up, bewildered. We… we were right outside the town. That should've been impossible. There was no way we traveled that quickly to the town from where we were. Unless…

I stared at the 3DS. Does this thing control reality?!

I calmed myself. 'Woah, woah, Cameron… calm down. Let's think about this logically. My 3DS might've done this whole mess to the world, but I bet I'm still under video game logic. That means traveling shouldn't take as long through the world map… right?'

A loose idea at best, but still better than anything else I could come up with.

My Mii dashed right in and started panicking to the first person he found, standing by the entrance. This person was also a Mii, and…

"Wait…" I murmured under my breath. Unless I was mistaken, that was clearly a Mii based on Bob Ross.

I started to say something, but my voice died in my throat. This was getting a little TOO crazy for me.

"Bit boring today…" Bob Ross stated, stretching his arms. He then noticed my Mii waving his arms and panicking. "What's up with you?"

My Mii quickly explained the situation, and Bob Ross seemed a little taken back. "Monsters with a person's eyes? Hah! That's a good one. Look, you just need to relax a little. Greenhorne's a peaceful place. You can leave your worries behind here."

My Mii shook his head, and then he looked back at me. "You saw it too, right?" my Mii asked.

I nodded, and Bob Ross looked between the two of us. "Huh. You both bear a rather striking resemblance to each other… but either way, you both should relax. You know, I heard the mayor is in town. If you really want to talk about this random issue, then go find him."

My Mii and I nodded, thanking Bob Ross. We slowly headed further into town.

Greenhorne did seem like quite the cozy little hamlet. There were plenty of Mii's roaming the town, some tall, some short, some boys, some girls, and everything else you could think off.

A cheery-looking woman ran a small booth near the entrance. I realized my 3DS was actually giving me each person's name as we approached them. The cheery 'granny' (she didn't look that old at all) was found out to be someone named Meloetta.

"Good morning!" the cheery lady greeted as we approached. "Isn't the weather today just bee-YEW-tiful?"

Then she saw my Mii looking not-so-happy. "Why the long face? You should smile, like me. Come on now, smile!"

I saw my Mii crack a smile. "A smile brings happiness!" Meloetta insisted, smiling broader herself.

My Mii did actually look in brighter spirits, as did I. Amidst all the confusion from what was happening around me, I was starting to loosen up.

Just past Meloetta's stand, a young Mii boy was running around in circles, full of youthful energy. Standing nearby was another woman, presumably the little boy's mother, watching the boy with a concerned expression.

"Weee! Whoo-hoo!" the boy, who was named Buzz Light, exclaimed. "I'm a dragon!" he yelled right in my Mii's face. "Rarrr!"

I shook my head playfully. "Kids…" I murmured.

My Mii seemed to share that playful outlook.

"Buzz Light, be careful!" the mother, named Bubblegum, warned. "This child has me at my wits end!"

She then noticed the two of us approaching, and quickly straightened. "O-oh! Adventurers! Please, excuse me. My child is very energetic, and it's hard to keep up with him sometimes…"

"No worries, ma'am." I insisted. "Say, do you know where the mayor of this town would happen to be right now?"

"Oh, you mean Mayor Ash?" Bubblegum asked, looking further into town. "He usually spends quite some time near the exit of town, thinking about how to better our lives. I'd look there."

"Thank you, ma'am." my Mii thanked, and the two of us went on our way.

There was another group of people further in, these two looking like a couple. A very happy couple, by the looks of things. Their names were Mick Foley and Lucoa.

"Dawww…" Mick Foley cooed, happily dancing with Lucoa.

"You're so cute, Mick Foley!" Lucoa insisted, like they had said this multiple times everyday and never tired of it.

"No, YOU'RE cute, Lucoa!" Mick Foley insisted back. "I feel as though I'm dreaming…"

"Shall I pinch you? Tee-hee!" Lucoa asked, giggling.

My Mii shook his head and then seemed to be a little… I'm not sure exactly WHAT expression he was making.

"Let's just let them be…" I whispered, tugging my Mii's arm along. He followed along.

We were almost at the exit at this point. A little bit away from the exit, walking around a bit, was another Mii, this one a bit more… sarcastic looking. You could just tell by looking at him. His name was Gastly. His smile was huge, and his eyes seemed a little bit… dark, as though he had seen things he shouldn't have. Or something. I might have just been overthinking it.

He saw us approach him, and he stared us down. "What?" he asked shortly. "We don't get many of your kind out here. You both here on vacation or something?"

I glanced back at my Mii. "Not… really. Maybe, for the time being, I guess." I responded. My Mii shrugged.

"Ooh, some kind of relaxation vacation, is it?" Gastly asked us (as if he really cared). "Must be nice for you two. I'm soooo jealous."

I didn't like this guy very much, and I'm guessing my Mii shared that feeling, because now he looked a tad miffed. But there wasn't much else to say. Gastly already walked away from us.

Eventually, the two of us made our way to the back of the town, right near the back exit. There stood one last person, and I got the feeling that this was the guy that the mother had told us about, the mayor. His clothes certainly seemed a bit more fancy than the other villagers here.

"Ah, adventurers!" the mayor said. My 3DS confirmed our suspicions that his was Mayor Ash. "Welcome to our fair town! I assume that you already have spoken to our fair residents?"

"Yes, sir." I responded.

"This seemed like a really nice town." my Mii politely agreed with a smile.

Mayor Ash nodded. "Greenhorne's a peaceful, pleasant town." Then with a rub to his neck, he added with a laugh, "But I'm the mayor, so I'd have to say that anyway."

It was then that a dark shadow descended over the town. I looked up. Dark clouds were suddenly rolling in, clouds that hadn't been there five seconds ago.

"H-huh?!" Ash shouted, looking up at the clouds as well.

He wasn't the only one. All across the village, the villagers we had interacted with were looking up at the sudden clouds coming directly our way. Many of them were muttering words of worry, or even panic, and some seemed just plain afraid.

"O-oh… oh no… it's…" Ash murmured, fearfully cowering on the spot.

My Mii and I were just plain puzzled.

And then the surroundings around me became dark. Like, inky black dark.

"What the-" I stated, noticing that everything around me suddenly… vanished. The town, the sky, the villagers, even my Mii, who had been right next to me, was gone. Or something.

Suddenly, I heard noise coming from my 3DS. I looked down at it, and I realized something: it was having me input something.

I slid my headphones back on. Old-timey sounding music was playing, kinda like old-timey intermission music for a play or something. And then I noticed what the top screen was asking me for.

"The Dark Lord… 'A wicked presence who rules monsters from the shadows!'" I read aloud. There was a picture above that description, but where a face should've been, there was nothing more than a question mark face.

The system prompted me to input a character to play as the Dark Lord. I stared at that. 'Wait, _I_ have to assign the Dark Lord? And… why would I want to?'

Then I realized: the whole world has been transformed into the video game. By that logic, if I was to _beat_ the game, then I would hopefully return the world to normal. It was the best idea I had at the time, anyway. I mean, what else COULD I have done?

And to progress anyway in this game, I guess I had no choice but to make a character to become the main villain of the game. 'That's… actually really cool.' I thought, the ideas of who to play as the villain of the game flowing through me.

Then, I looked back up at the description. I focused on the words, 'monsters' and 'rules'.

And suddenly, it clicked.

I quickly tapped some buttons on the system, my character already built into my mind, quickly making a new Mii. In moments, the Dark Lord was now assigned. Feel free to groan if you will, but I decided to make the Dark Lord one of my personal favorite video game characters, Chara from Undertale.

Sue me, okay? I'm a nerd. What do you expect?

Anyway, the darkness around me faded away, back to Greenhorne, but now the clouds were directly over us. And… I heard something.

And suddenly, the Dark Lord appeared before us.

He certainly fit THAT name, I'll say that. He wore a large, dark purple-gray magician's coat. They were really freaking big, almost double, if not triple the size of most Mii's. Their hands had long, horrible fingernails. Their hair was wide and purple, and just screamed 'villian.' But the worst part of them was around his neck, he wore a large golden medallion in the shape of an eye. It seemed to darkly glow with evil energy. It amplified the terror of anyone who saw this Dark Lord.

Their face was exactly what I expected: Chara. I tried my best to make sure it looked as accurate to the game they are based on as possible, right down to the rosy cheeks and permanent smile. Even the eyes were red, thanks to Miitopia's extensive hair and eye color options.

"Mwa-hahahaaha!" Dark Lord Chara laughed evilly. "I am Dark Lord Chara! I'm here to wreck havoc on this miserable little world, and I'm starting with YOU, people of Greenhorne!"

I stepped back in fear. My Mii half-hid behind me.

Over by the entrance where we came from, suddenly, Buzz Light's face suddenly flew off. "Mama!" the face cried while it floated away.

"Buzz Light!" Bubblegum yelled, cowering next to her faceless son.

At the entrance, Meloetta's face flew off as well, and so did Bob Ross's. Nearby, Lucoa's face flew away, much to Mick Foley's dismay, and even Gastly had his face swiped.

Mayor Ash cowered near us, completely unprepared for this. "Th-this is awful… t-their faces!"

The five stolen faces gathered around Dark Lord Chara, and he seemed pleased. "Hm. This will do for now."

He then shouted aloud, "Listen up you faceless freaks! Get used to a life of wordless terror, because that's what your stuck with!"

Buzz Light was still panicking, and he quickly ran into a wall he couldn't see.

"And for those of you that have been spared…" the Dark Lord warned, looking around. My Mii and I took another step back nervously.

"Gaze around at all of your little friends… AND DESPAIR! MUHAHAHAHAHA!"

And with that happy thought, the Dark Lord closed their hands over their chest and teleported away somewhere, the faces going with him.

The Mayor was in pieces. "H-how could this happen… Greenhorne's a peaceful town…" he murmured, still cowering.

"Come on." I mumbled to my Mii. "Let's go see the others."

My Mii nodded grimly.

Gastly said nothing as we approached. He had no choice, seeing as he had no mouth. All he was as just a body with a head, with no eyes or mouth or anything. Even his nose outline had been taken.

Lucoa was no better. "L-Lucoa's pretty face! Taken!" Mick Foley exclaimed, shaking badly. "Now she can't even whisper sweet nothings…"

My Mii and I were a little taken back at that last bit, and we slowly backed away without a word.

However, it was as we approached Bubblegum and Buzz Light that something happened. "My little Buzz Light! Face… taken!"

Then she noticed us. "Oh! Adventurers! Please, I beg of you, you have to save my little boy!"

My Mii barely even hesitated. "Of course ma'am! We will help you!"

I stared at him. "Dude. What are you doing?" I asked nervously.

"We have to help her! Her child is faceless!" my Mii whispered back.

Before I could get another word in, Bubblebum looked truly relieved. "Oh, thank the heavens above… but I can't let you go with nothing… here. You should take this."

Bubblegum removed her decorative pendent and handed it to me. It was rather fancy-looking amulet, with leather for a string and gold details. "This amulet has been in my family for generations. It's always given me luck when I needed it."

I slowly put the amulet around my neck. "Thank you, ma'am…" I slowly replied, stammering a little.

"The Dark Lord can't have gone far… he might be around the outskirts of Greenhorne." Bubblegum guessed. "Please, save my Buzz Light!"

"We will, ma'am! Count on it!" my mii replied confidently.

He dashed for the exit, leaving me dashing right behind him.

As we exited, I saw that my 3DS was showing the World Map again. I moved my Mii to the new area that just opened up, the one with the '!' mark, and entered that area.

In seconds, now we were in a field similar to where we started, though the sky here looked a little more purple than the first, as if it was later in the day.

As we entered, we were quickly stopped in our tracks by the sudden appearance of the Dark Lord again, now right in front of us. "Mwaaa ha ha haaaa! Is someone trying to be the big hero?" Chara asked sarcastically.

My Mii looked a little less confident than he did moments before. Nevertheless, he steeled himself and yelled determinedly, "Give Buzz Light's face back!"

"Yeah! What he said!" I agreed. Man, that was lame.

The Dark Lord simply laughed at us. He waved his hand, and from the sky a face, Buzz Light's face to be exact, flew down in front of him. "What, this ol' thing?" he asked.

We nodded angrily. "Hrmm…" Dark Lord Chara mused. "Maybe I will give this one back to you two… but you'll have to earn it!"

He waved his hands together, and suddenly a yellow pulsing blob appeared. With a start, my Mii and I realized that the Dark Lord just created a yellow slime in front of us, easily as big as us.

I suddenly felt very small. My Mii looked little better.

"How good are you in a fight?" Dark Lord Chara asked sarcastically.

"Eeep…!" my Mii managed to say.

The Dark Lord waved his hand, and then Buzz Light's face quickly attached to the yellow blob. Suddenly the blob was a slime with an expressionless Buzz Light's face attached to it.

"Be seeing you! If you survive, that is!" The Dark Lord laughed, and then they teleported away.

Leaving us alone with an angry pile of goo in front of us.

"Ummm…" I stammered, backing away very slightly.

"Ermm…" My Mii stammered as well, backing away a little too.

The slime lunged forward. We jumped back, just barely avoiding the smack to the face.

The slime angrily moved forward again, and we started trying to run away. But we didn't know the area very well, and suddenly we realized we were cornered against a rock and a hard place. Literally.

The slime slowly approached, already knowing that we couldn't move anywhere. My Mii was cowering in place, wailing in fear.

Seeing that, I grew a little upset. My Mii was in danger and I couldn't do anything. Or could I?

I stood in front of him, bravely holding my arms in front of him. "You want him, you gotta get through me first, slimeball!" I yelled, sounding much braver than I really felt.

My Mii, though still cowering behind me, looked at me in total surprise.

Just as the yellow blob rushed forward quickly and swung its body at me…

The amulet around my neck started glowing.

The slime reeled back, the stolen face stuck to it contorting to one of annoyance.

And suddenly, the world around me and my Mii became different.

We were in a glowing area of purple and blue, and… it felt peaceful. But in a way that felt only temporary, like staying in a hotel.

"Wh… what…?" My Mii squeaked, looking around worriedly.

And then a second voice called out, " _Cameron, and… er, Cameron… can you hear me?"_

The two of us looked around wildly. "Wh-who's there?!" I called out, seeing no one.

"Er, yes?" My Mii responded, looking around as well.

" _Ho ho! It seems as though you can hear me! Excelent!"_ the unknown voice responded, sounded happy. It sounded holy. I couldn't really tell if it was male or female. Perhaps genderless?

"What? If you're there, show yourself!" I demanded.

" _Do not look for me. I am not… there, per say. I am speaking to you through the amulet around your neck…"_ the voice responded.

I quickly took the amulet off my neck. With every word the voice spoke, the amulet glowed along with it. " _Now, you both may not believe this, but I'm a guardian spirit of a sort. I have lived in this amulet for many years, but only now have I truly awoken."_

My Mii and I said the exact appropriate response for that statement: "Whaaaaat?!"

The voice made a sound that sounded like a sigh. " _Please, this is already going to be confusing to explain. Just hear me out, okay?"_

The voice paused for a moment, before continuing, " _It would seem that the two of you are in a little bit of trouble. Would you like a little help?"_

I glanced at my Mii. "Uhhh… I… guess?" I responded, moreso asking my Mii.

My Mii nodded. "Couldn't hurt."

The voice seemed happy. " _Ho ho! Perfect! I, er, bestoweth upon thee, the awesome power of the guardian!"_

The guardian made yelling sounds, and all of the sudden my Mii became awash in holy golden light.

When the light faded, all of a sudden he was different. His outfit changed. No longer did he wear basic adventuring garb. Now, he wore a crisp, white uniform, a short red apron below the waist, a red handkerchief tied in a knot around the neck,, and a slightly-oversized hat of a chef. In his hand, he held a frying pan, so clean it must've been store-bought.

With a start, I realized my Mii had just been transformed into a Chef. I remembered that as being one of the classes of the game.

My Mii quickly looked at his entire body, in total surprise. "Would you take a look at that? How do I look?" he asked.

"Very professional. Like you should be cooking for food critics." I replied honestly, my own eyes wide.

" _Ho ho! Seems though the transformation was a success!"_ the Guardian stated, pleased by their work. " _This new job should the perfect way to deal with the Dark Lord's fiends! Now fight, O Cameron! Make your foes fear you!"_

The voice faded away, as did the peaceful area around us.

Leaving us back in the middle of a field, with an annoyed slime wiggling in front of us.

My Mii took one look around, then quickly stretched his arm in preparation. "Here goes nothing." he mumbled, his face much more confident now than before.

And he charged forward.

My 3DS dinged at me, and a name appeared on it. 'Mini Buzz Light Slime' the system said, as the slime in question slowly wobbled forward towards us, more focused on my Mii. Probably for the best, anyway. I didn't get transformed in any way, I would be as useful as a wet towel in this fight.

The slime moved forward and slammed its whole body into my Mii's leg, quickly causing a small bruise to appear there. My Mii grimaced a little, but nevertheless stood up again just as before.

He looked at me. I stared back. "W… what are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm waiting for you to tell me what to do." he answered, gesturing towards my 3DS.

I looked down, confused. I realized my 3DS was asking for me to decide what my Mii should do, now that it was his turn.

With little other choice, I tapped 'Attack.' I then tapped on the only enemy around us, the slime.

My Mii quickly held up his frying pan over his head, then ran forward and bashed it directly into the slimes stolen face, making it reel backwards.

My Mii moved again, and with another attack the slime seemed weak, like it was losing strength. It still moved forward and bashed my Mii, however, and it was just as strong as ever.

I was getting a little worried. My Mii was losing health, and we didn't have any way to restore it right now. I quickly instructed him to attack one more time, however, and then the slime slumped over, and it's stolen eyes closed.

We… we did it.

"Did… did we do it?" I asked hesitantly, approaching the slime.

Suddenly, my 3DS beeped again. I looked at the system. It was telling me to point it at the fallen slime, for some reason.

I turned it around, and out of nowhere the system violently started shaking. I lurched forward as the system felt like it was trying to drag me forward. The slime's body quickly moved towards me, though it was as though it was getting dragged over to me.

A vortex of code and data lines formed from the screens, and the slime quickly got caught into that vortex. With a sharp popping sound, the slime was sucked right into my 3DS, and the face that had been on it quickly flew away from the system.

"Buhhh?" the face asked us, before flying away into the sky and out of sight.

As soon as the area became peaceful again, my Mii and I collapsed to the ground, out of exhaustion for him and sheer confusion for me.

"Whew…" my Mii murmured, rubbing his forehead. A small bruise was visible on his arm, and a tiny cut was on his hand, but other than that he looked fine, if not a bit battered.

" _Excellent work, young Cameron duo!"_ the Guardian praised, my amulet glowing again. " _You two dispatched that slime as if you'd done it a hundred times before!"_

"Aww, it was nothing…" my Mii denied bashfully, smiling all the same.

" _Now that child should be safe."_ the Guardian explained. " _All looks quite well, if I may be so bold to claim! You two should head back to Greenhorne to see how the child is doing."_

The two of us nodded, and we quickly turned around and ran for Greenhorne.

The sky became darker as we approached, the dark clouds still thick overhead and the feeling of despair very prominent everywhere.

We approached Buzz Light, and we saw his face slowly float down from the sky. It circled him once, and then popped right back where it should go.

He placed his hand against his head, as if testing that his face was actually back. When he realized it was, he jumped up for joy, crying out, "Yaaaa!"

"Buzz Light!" a voice called out. Bubblegum was charging forward, her eyes very misty at the sight of her saved child. "Oh, Buzz Light! Are you okay?!"

"I'm fine, Mama!" Buzz Light agreed happily, embracing his mother.

"Oh, Buzz Light…" Bubblegum breathed, hugging her child very close to her.

Bubblegum finally released her child, turned back to us, who were just watching this entire exchange with happy faces. I was very nearly moved to tears. It was just so touching…

"Adventurers, I cannot thank you enough for this." Bubblegum thanked, sounding beyond relieved. "Here. The least I can do is give you this."

From a pocket, Bubblegum procured a small pouch, filled with a mass of two-hundred golden coins.

"Oh, no, ma'am, we can't accept-" I tried to argue.

"No buts. Please, you deserve it." the mother insisted, smiling happily at me. Without a second word otherwise, the pair walked away happily.

"Can't argue with a gift." my Mii smirked.

I tucked the money away for now, still a little weirded out by what was happening in the world.

Suddenly, for no apparent reason, the world around the two of us became the peaceful holy area. We looked around for but a moment before our Guardian spoke to us again.

" _Ho ho! Splendid work, you two!"_ the Guardian praised. " _Now then, Cameron and Cameron, my children… I have a task for the two of you."_

"Erm… you do?" my Mii asked hesitantly.

" _You now have seen the horrible deeds of Dark Lord Chara, and the horror they plan to cause on the world. So I hereby commissioned the two of you…"_

I gulped nervously.

" _Defeat the vile Chara, and save Miitopia!"_ our Guardian insisted us.

I glanced over at my Mii. "I feel as though we don't have a choice either way…" I murmured.

My Mii nodded. "I felt just the same. Still, you have to admit that if our Guardian didn't make me a Chef, we'd probably not be here right now. We have a debt to pay."

I agreed, though a tad hesitantly. "Okay. Then I guess we shall!" I said aloud.

" _I'm very happy to hear you say that! You're new powers should help you defeat monsters. Now go, Chef Cameron and… erm, other Cameron! Make your foes fear you!"_

The both of us nodded. Suddenly, I heard the Guardian's voice again, but this time it felt more in my head alone. " _You can still save your world, you know. Follow your Mii. Keep him safe, become friends with him. Your system will help you when you defeat a monster. You will return that enemy to the game itself. You must work with your Mii to revert your world to what it was."_

'But… I can't fight.' I muttered in my head.

" _About that… I might be able to work on something… but I don't have enough power to do so. In any case, help your Mii. Capture defeated monsters and force them back into your system. Every monster you return will help restore the world, if only a little bit."_ the Guardian whispered.

I nodded. 'I… I guess I have to. I can't leave… er, myself, alone out here.'

" _Excellent! I will watch over your group. Please, you MUST save the world of Miitopia!"_ the Guardian insisted.

And then the scenery finally faded away, back to a distraught Greenhorne.

Me and my Mii looked at each other, nodded, and then ran for the exit.

We had a long road ahead of us.

But there was only one way to go from here.

Secretly, I was excited as to what this journey would present to itself.

Only time would tell.

* * *

 **So yeah. What do you guys think?**

 **I went ahead and looked at the other Miitopia stories (many of which are really good and I highly recommend giving a read), and I am fairly certain I'm the first one to try an OC insert to this game. Makes sense, really.**

 **Anyway, I hope that you guys have enjoyed this first chapter! I'm REALLY excited to write out this story.**

 **Oh, and in case you wondering, part of the reason I wanted to make this story in the first place was that I was the one who asked FanFiction if they could make a Miitopia category for stories.**

 **Yep. I'm not joking on that one. Since it seems to have several people interested enough to make stories, I figured that I should make my own story for it as well.**

 **If you guys have any questions for me, be sure to PM me and I'll do my best to answer them for you.**

 **I hope you guys like this new story! Stay tuned for Chapter 2, but until then…**

 **Stay awesome!**


	2. Two Friends are Better Than None!

**Welcome dear readers! Welcome to chapter two of the new story.**

 **Guess I shouldn't wait much longer. Here you go!**

* * *

Chapter 2: Two Friends are Better Than None!

It wasn't long before the two of us made it to what my 3DS labeled as 'Easin Hills.'

The only way forward seemed to be walking through the fields ahead of us, but the both of us were nervous about entering. Who knew what monsters looking for some travellers for lunch would be?

My Mii punctuated this thought by sighing, then stating, "OK then…"

"Here goes nothing." I agreed.

Together, we ventured into the hills. The trip was actually quite peaceful for most of the day, actually. The area had a nice breeze blowing through it at all times, and me and my Mii had quite enjoyable conversation through most of the trip.

"I'll admit it though…" my Mii mumbled after a while of seeing nothing but hills. "Traveling with just the two of us is a little lonely, don't you think?"

"Mmm… a little." I agreed, before seeing two butterflies approach from behind a rock. "Dude! Enemies!"

My Mii jumped up in place, and quickly reached for his frying pan, but the butterfly closest to him suddenly flapped forward and smacked him in the face, causing him to drop his 'weapon.'

He tried to pick it up, but the other Rock Moth quickly dashed forward and blocked his attempt. "Ermm…" he stammered, looking back and forth between the two angry moths.

I didn't know what to do. The Moths didn't seem interested in me yet, but that could change at any moment. But I couldn't just leave my Mii alone like that.

He tried again to reach for his pan, but the Moth's kept blocking him. "I can't fight these things like this!" he shouted aloud, getting frustrated and upset.

"I-I'm… still thinking of a plan…!" I called out, trying to get around to the pan to toss it over. The Moths still hadn't seen me.

Suddenly, my amulet glowed again. " _Ho ho! Seems like you two are having some trouble, eh? But don't fret. I've sent help your way! Buh-doh... buh-dah... BUH-DEE!_

"Wha-?" I asked, just as the voice dimmed.

It was then that I heard a second voice behind, and it sounded almost like someone humming. I turned.

A girl was approaching me. A Mii, of course. Everything about her was the color green: eyes, mouth, hair, even her outfit. The outfit itself was a flowing white robe with green details, and an oversized bell-shaped hat on her head with a green stripe running down the front and around the bottom. She casually held a stick in her right hand, and seemed to be humming contentedly with herself.

Then she looked around, and appeared a little confused. "Wait… how did I get here?"

Then she noticed me staring at her, and my Mii not that far away. "Ah!" she exclaimed, dashing for me. "Are you two in trouble?"

"Nope! I love playing with these Moths!" my Mii sarcastically responded, after another failed attempt at getting his frying pan.

"Can you help?" I begged, not having any time to explain.

"Of course!" the girl responded, and she charged ahead at the Moths.

The Moths, so focused on tormenting my Mii, were very unprepared when the girl came from nowhere and slapped one in the face with her stick.

That gave my Mii just enough of an opening to dash for his frying pan and grab it, much to the Moths anger.

Quickly, I ordered my Mii to attack the first one, which he did with gusto. I was about to tell the girl what she should do, when she just prepped her stick and charged for it. Granted, it was what I would've told her to do anyway, but I was still confused.

'Guess I can only tell my guy what to do…' I thought, wincing as the Moth's attacked both Mii's.

In another turn, both Moth's were defeated, left to lie on the ground. I quickly pointed my 3DS at them and held on tight, as the bodies were quickly sucked back into the system and the faces were released.

The Guardian suddenly whispered in my ear as I was doing this. " _Ho ho! Seems as though stolen faces just fly off defeated monsters, huh? Whoever's face that belonged to has you and your group to thank for saving it. Just like that sassy youngster you helped earlier. You should help as many people as you possibly can throughout your journey. I'd be much obliged! Ho ho!"_

This time, though, the system also spat out something else: a small pouch of gold, and a jar with a butterfly design on it, filled with a strange jelly-like substance, pink in color.

I carefully picked up these things and tucked them away, the first into my growing money pouch, and the jar safely into a bag I had found at Greenhorne.

"Whew…" my Mii sighed, wiping his forehead. "Thank you." he thanked, turning towards the new Mii.

"Thanks! My name is Susie." the new girl introduced, her eyes making a happy expression. Then she gave us a look, as if she saw the similarities. "Wait, are you two…?"

Quick introductions were made, and Susie was brought up to speed on our current expedition.

Susie looked thoughtful. "So, you're both on a quest to defeat the Dark Lord, yes?" she asked. We nodded. "Can I join you? I've been wandering the land for days, and I was hoping I would run into someone I could help!"

I glanced at my Mii. We nodded at the same time. "Why not?" I agreed. "More the merrier."

"Yay! Thank you! I won't let you down!" Susie thanked, quickly hugging my Mii.

My Mii blushed a little, but before he could say anything, Susie parted and gave him a big smile.

" _Ho ho!"_ the Guardian laughed, my amulet glowing again. " _Seems as though you two are going to get along just fine! You three should get to know each other along the way. The stronger your friendship, the easier the path ahead will be! Ho ho!"_

 _Susie joined the party!_

And so the three of us continued along our way. Susie was quite eager to talk to the two of us, and we were quite happy to talk to her along the way.

Apparently Susie was a Cleric, meaning she was much more comfortable healing people than fighting. "Don't get me wrong: I'll fight if I have to." she explained. "I just don't like to fight all the time, if that makes sense."

"Guess so." my Mii agreed.

It was then that I saw something at us up ahead running from ahead. "Guys!"

My Mii and Susie quickly pulled out their weapons as the figure stepped forward.

I was a little disgusted by what I saw. It was an ugly creature, the color of mold, with gnarled hands and pointed teeth poking out of a large, permanently smiling mouth. It's tiny feet were connected to a pair of thin, twisted legs. A pair of Mii eyes were attached to the face of the creature, just above a really long nose.

"Eurgh! What is THAT?" I yelled.

"A Goblin…" Susie murmured. "Not the prettiest of things, huh?"

"You can say that again…" my Mii agreed.

The Goblin quickly rushed forward and used it's long nose to slap Susie across the face. Susie took a knee as the force of the impact hit her hard.

Susie dashed forward and tried slapping it with her stick. The Goblin didn't look to fazed, in honesty. My Mii followed up by bashing with his frying pan, but that did little as well. Again, it tried to slap Susie, and now Susie could barely stand up.

"Susie!" my Mii shouted. He looked back at me. "Quick! I learned something a while ago! Might be a good time to try it!"

I was a little confused, but I nevertheless listened. Once Susie weakly tried to hit the Goblin, I looked over my Mii's options. I noticed that the 'Skills' button was, in fact, lit up like he had a skill, so I tapped it.

There was only one skill present, labeled 'Home Cooking.' The description read, 'Restore a friend's HP with some freshly made cooking.'

"Ooh, that's perfect!" I shouted, tapping the option and then Susie.

My 3DS beeped, and then words appeared. 'New Skill!' and then 'Home Cooking.'

My Mii took a deep breath as he held his frying pan in front of him. In moments, he suddenly had a small amount of food on his pan, and it appeared as though it was actually cooking even without a stove of any kind.

He quickly finished the food, then presented the pan to Susie. "Dig in!" he happily offered.

Susie took the food without hesitation, and ate it all. Her cuts and bruises quickly faded away, and strength seemed to be returning to her. "Delicious!" she praised.

She seemed like she liked my Mii even more at that point, but another slap from the Goblin, this time at my Mii, brought us all back. The fight was now almost over, the Goblin didn't look too good. A quick slap from Susie's stick of doom and a bash of my Mii's wonderful frying pan of magical food, and the battle was over.

Quickly, I forced the Goblin back into my system, and a pair of eyes quickly flew away, back to their owner. I couldn't help but wonder as I picked up a bag of coins the creature left behind: did some Mii's only have parts of their faces stolen, or all of it? Because the only time we've seen a monster that had a whole face, it was that child's face attached to that slime.

Still quietly wondering, I followed after my Mii and Susie. It was getting late in the day, the sky was slowly turning darker by the minute.

But then my Mii noticed something on the ground just as it reached late afternoon. "Hey, there's something on the ground here." he noticed, bending down to pick it up.

He found a banana of some kind. Susie looked pleased. "Ooh! An HP Banana! Those can restore your health in a pinch!"

I tilted my head. "Why banana's, though?" I asked.

My Mii looked at me funnily. "You just saw me made food out of thin air without a stove and save a pair of eyes that were stolen from a Mii, and THAT'S the question you ask?" he asked with a smirk.

I shrugged. "Sue me. I can only focus on one random thought at a time."

That caused a few laughs. My Mii tucked the banana into his pocket and the journey continued.

For a little bit, anyway. I guess my Mii couldn't help himself or something. He quickly called Susie back as he pulled out his HP Banana. "Want half?" he asked, presenting her half.

Susie quickly ate the half he offered her, and they both got a small amount of HP restored, I could see some lingering bruises healing. "Thanks!" Susie thanked.

They seemed to be growing even closer. I couldn't help but smile at that.

My Mii only then seemed to notice me. "Oh! I'm sorry, I should've offered you some…"

"Nah, it's okay. I'm just hoping that we can settle down for some food in a minute…" I mumbled, my stomach lightly growling.

"Didn't you pick up some jelly and ham from earlier?" Susie asked.

I did a double take at her words. "Wait… ham?"

I quickly looked through my bag. Sure enough, a plate with a few thick slices of some kind of ham was in my bag. It must've been dropped by the Goblin and I just didn't notice I was picking it up. That was the only thing I could think of, anyway.

I consulted my 3DS. The ham was revealed to be called 'Goblin Ham.'

My stomach didn't like the sound of that. "On second thought… I'm not hungry right now. I'mma wait a little bit longer…"

"I don't blame you… Goblin Ham is a bit of an… acquired taste." Susie agreed, gazing rather distastefully at the food.

I tucked it away and the way continued, but before long the three of us were lagging. The day had been long, and the sky was only getting darker.

"I'm so tired…" my Mii murmured, barely able to walk.

"Me too…" Susie added, "I don't know how much longer I can last…"

"I'd give up all our gold just to find a good place to sleep…" I yawned, exhausted from the sheer craziness of today's events.

"Wait… what's that?" my Mii asked, pointing ahead of us.

Lights were up ahead, just a little ways away. I could make out a sign of some kind before a stone gateway. The sign had one simple word on it: INN.

"An Inn! C'mon, let's go get some rest!" my Mii happily exclaimed.

"Praise be to the deity of well-placed inns!" Susie thanked the heavens above, and the three of us made a run for the inn.

The moment we entered the door, the entire atmosphere changed. There were Mii's milling about here, some looking like inn workers, and others that looked like they were resting as well.

I quickly told my friends to wait while I booked us a room, and they nodded. I approached the main counter and talked to the bellhop, "Room for three, please."

The Mii looked at me a little funnily. "Sorry bud. Room's are for two people max."

"Oh, c'mon!" I complained lightly.

Then someone appeared by my side. A male Mii, it looked like. He wore some kind of purple outfit, with a white undershirt under his short purple leather vest, purple shorts, and a purple bandana with goggles on his head. Tied to his waist was a small sack of some kind, and his his right hand he held a rather sharp looking dagger. His eyes looked tired, as though he never seemed to get enough sleep in a day, and his mouth seemed to always be in a somewhat sarcastic smile.

"Hey, buddy. Are you trying to scam one of your customers into not staying the night?" the new Mii asked, gazing at the bellhop. "You know I don't like it when you do that…"

The bellhop quickly took one look at the new guy's sharp dagger and quickly gave in. He handed me a key to a room upstairs, saying that me and my friends had it for the night.

I headed back for my friends, and the strange man followed after me. "You're welcome, by the way."

"Th-thank you… but did you really just threaten someone with that thing?" I nervously asked.

"Oh please. I'm not an idiot. He's scared of me, but he should know just as much as anyone that Thieves never try to hurt any Mii if they can help it. Well… with some exceptions…"

I took a half step to the side. "You're scaring me."

The new guy stood his hand out. "I don't let anyone know my real name, so you can call me Purple Guy. Good to met you, kid."

"Erm… Cameron." I responded, hesitantly taking Purple Guy's hand. A quick shake, and he dropped it.

"Welp, I have things to do. You enjoy your room now…" Purple Guy intoned, quickly slinking away. Before I knew it, he was gone.

'What the…' I thought in my head, before giving up. Another day, Cameron. Another day.

Anyway, I found my friends mingling with some other random Mii's, and I quickly got them upstairs.

We found our room, already with two extremely comfortable beds and a third rolling bed that looked just as comfy.

My Mii barely set down his frying pan and his chef's hat before he collapsed into the red bed, falling asleep in three seconds. Susie quickly took off her hat and placed her stick gently next to her nightstand before stretching and lying into bed, falling asleep just as fast.

As for me? I didn't feel completely tired yet, so I decided to do a small bit of an inventory check. I hadn't really searched my pockets for much, and I wanted to know what I managed to keep with me before everything went insane.

I found a charger for my 3DS, which was very comforting. I also found my phone in my pocket, which was even bigger of a relief. Perhaps it still worked?

I quickly started trying to find someone to call. I settled on my sister.

It ran once before going to voicemail. Even though I was a little heartbroken that it go through, at least it did seem like it still worked. That was a plus.

I didn't leave a voicemail. I didn't know what I should say.

I slowly plugged in my 3DS for the night and my glasses. 'What do I… do? I'm… alone. The world has been changed, and it's my fault. How can I even hope to help my Mii?'

The amulet around my neck softly glowed. " _Do not fret, young Cameron. You might feel useless now, but you are strong. The amulet would not have awoken me if you weren't strong enough to save your world AND Miitopia."_

'But… all I've done is capture a few monsters in the system. My Mii and Susie did all the work.' I mumbled in my head.

" _You helped. I have little doubt that your Mii and Susie truly appreciates the things that you've done for them, however small it may seem. Just keep your chin up. You'll save them all."_

I thought back to Greenhorne, and those poor faceless people. All of them were going to bed tonight afraid and alone, and would wake up to a world of terror because they had no sight, no smell, no ability to speak… no anything.

I thought about the Dark Lord, a person who wanted nothing more than to see the Mii's of this world punished for crimes they never committed.

I thought about my family, wherever they were, wondering where I was.

I thought about all of that and more.

I thought for a long time.

Eventually, my brain finally grew tired with my body.

I carefully made sure everything was plugged in and my glasses were off before sitting on the bed.

My eyes were closed and I was fast asleep before my head even hit the pillow.

Zzzzz…

Zzzzz…

* * *

 _The next day…_

* * *

I awoke to the smell of food coming from downstairs somewhere.

I kept my eyes closed. "It was all a dream. I dreamt that my Mii came to life and that we were chasing someone called the Dark Lord, who stole the faces of Mii's. In a moment, I'll find my parents downstairs talking about the economy or something dumb like that."

A knock came on a nearby door. "And there's one of them now, about to tell me to get up…" I groaned quietly.

The knocking continued. And continued. I didn't understand why my parents didn't just open the door. They always did. "Alright, alright already…" I complained, sitting up and opening my eyes.

The sheets of the rollout bed fell away. I saw two sleeping figures next to me, one belonging to my Mii and the other to Susie. I suddenly realized I was in the Inn.

Which meant everything HAD been real. That or I was drop DEAD asleep and this was the most lucid dream ever.

A sound akin to groaning came nearby. I looked over and saw my Mii, irritatedly rubbing his eyes. "Who is it…" he asked me.

"Mmm…" Susie hummed at the other side, awake but still trying to sleep.

"C'min…" I grumbled, standing up and stretching.

The door opened and in stepped a bellhop. "Sorry to disturb you, but the buffet is open and there's plenty of food to go around. I'd hurry down, if I were you."

With that, the bellhop left.

The moment the door closed, Susie sat up straight and muttered, "Food."

My stomach growled in response. I realized I hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast of yesterday morning. "Food." I agreed.

"Food is good." my Mii agreed more.

The three of us quickly gathered ourselves and then headed down to where the smell of food was coming from.

But before I get to that, I should explain something.

There are inns that have breakfast. And then there are _Miitopian_ Inns with breakfast.

At a normal inn, you'd expect a small breakfast with nothing special. Some eggs, maybe some pancakes, bacon and a drink. Enough to get you started for the day.

With Miitopian Inns, when they say 'enough food to go around,' they mean enough to feed a small COUNTRY.

The first thing I noticed was the sheer amount of Mii's that were roaming the dining hall, each eagar with a plate ready to be filled.

The second was the overwhelming smell of the dining hall. I mean, I could smell eggs, sryup, chocolate, muffins, sausage, cheese, bread, bacon, and a hundred other things that shouldn't have smelled good together, but did.

The final thing I noticed was easily the biggest. In the center of the room, about ten Mii chefs were cooking up the single biggest banquet of food I had ever seen in my life. The other Mii's were all swarmed around this table, and they were eager to grab anything that pleased them, whatever that might've been.

My stomach felt like it was rolling over like a begging dog at that sight. "I… it's so… beautiful…" I murmured in total awe.

Without another word otherwise, the three of us charged in and quickly got in line to grab some food.

* * *

 _Five minutes later…_

* * *

"Dear god…" I murmured. The three of us had claimed a table already and were now staring at the spread of food we had gathered.

Sausage, pancakes, eggs, a gallon of orange juice, chocolate muffins, butter and toast, bacon, and several others threatened to collapse the table with it's weight.

My Mii and Susie were gazing in absolute happiness. We had more food on this tiny dining table than most people ate for Thanksgiving.

And all at once, we dug in.

The first bite was just as heavenly as we were expecting. The food just felt like it melted the moment we brought it to our mouths.

I had never felt so happy, and so full, in my life. By the time we were finished, only scraps remained. We barely left any part of the food standing.

I could barely move. "So… good…"

"So tasty…" my Mii mumbled.

"Beyond that…" Susie whispered. "So delicious…"

We slowly forced ourselves up and gave the chef's a HUGE tip for their work, which they accepted with large smiles.

We dragged ourselves upstairs and slowly started getting ready for the rest of the day. We each took a short shower, got fully dressed, all that stuff.

"Hey, uh…" my Mii started to say a while later, before stopping. "I'm not exactly sure what I should call you still."

"How about, 'my look-alike,' or something to that effect?" I asked.

"Hmm… hey, my look-alike." my Mii attempted.

That sentence rolled around in our heads for a little. My Mii seemed to like it. "That could work." he stated.

"So, what did you need?" I asked.

"Well… there was something downstairs that I saw when we were heading back from breakfast. A new uniform, and I… well, I kinda want it." my Mii asked.

I tilted my head. "How much is it?"

"I looked a the tag, and it's only 140G." my Mii asked. "Can I get it? Please?"

I pulled out my money pouch. "I don't see why not." I agreed, handing over the money.

"Really?! Thank you! I'll be right back!" he exclaimed happily, quickly running back out. In moments, we was back, with a big grin on his face.

"Here it is!" he intoned, pulling out his new uniform. "What do you think?"

"Ooh!" I mused. It was a bit of a crisper uniform, with a stiffer, longer hat, and an even cleaner white shirt, with a red patch in the middle and a red stripe running around the base of the hat.

"That looks like something the Pro's wear." I commented. My Mii looked more than happy.

"I'mma put it on!" he quickly stated, heading to the bathroom to try it on.

A minute later and he came back, frying pan in hand. "How do I look?" he asked.

"Much more professional." I stated.

My Mii grinned at me.

Then I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was Susie, and she seemed like she had something to say. "Umm… Cameron's look-alike?"

"Yes?" I asked.

"Do you… well, do you think there's enough money in the budget for an HP Banana? They're only a hundred each." Susie asked.

I checked the money pouch. "Ohh… sorry Susie. I used most of it up on my Mii's new uniform. Sorry…"

"No, no it's fine." Susie quickly intergeticed. "I understand. My fault for not asking sooner."

"As soon as we get some more gold, we'll get you one, okay?" I asked.

Susie nodded, smiling again. "Thank you."

Once that was done, I started gathering up my things for the day ahead. I pocketed my phone and 3DS charger, and grabbed the system in question.

I noticed that on the top screen, a small image of the Inn was present, with my Mii and Susie rooming together in one.

'Huh… bet I could move them around if I wanted to.' I thought. 'But we're about to leave. Probably shouldn't try to confuse them if possible.'

Instead, I tapped on 'Set Out.' My Mii soon asked me if I was ready, hat and clothes neat and crisp. I nodded, and the three of us soon walked out of the Inn.

We quickly headed onward to the next area of Easin hills. It was still fairly early in the day, so the sky was still orange.

We soon reached the next area to cross on our way to save the day. I quickly did one last inventory check on my person. "You guys okay? Sus-"

Then I noticed that Susie wasn't nearby. The two of us did a double take, but she was nowhere within the vicinity.

My Mii looked slightly downtrodden. "Well… guess we can only keep going for now." he sighed.

I nodded, and we slowly walked in, carefully looking for any signs of Goblins or Rock Moths.

We didn't find any of those. In fact, the lack of monsters was quite concerning to me. "I don't like this…"

Then a laugh. And I realized that now would be a good time to run.

I quickly grabbed my Mii's arm and tried to turn back, much to my Mii's surprise, but then Dark Lord Chara appeared before us in the direction I was heading, just as menacing as ever. "Well well well! Look who we have here! Seems as though my minion wasn't enough to best these little pests."

My Mii looked nervous, but he steeled himself and yelled, "Chara! Prepare for ruin!"

"By his FRYING PAN OF DOOM!" I shouted aloud. My Mii gave me a grin before turning back towards our foe.

The Dark Lord seemed quiet for all but of ten seconds, before breaking into evil laughter. "Oh, that's rich! You puny mortals think you can beat ME?"

Dark Lord Chara popped their knuckles. "Well, if you want it so badly… let's dance!"

From their hands, a massive ball of dark energy, bigger than the Inn we were just staying at, formed. It continued to charge longer and longer, and it only grew more powerful.

I suddenly started wishing we never left the Inn. "Ummm…" I mumbled, slowly trying to back away.

"Err…" my Mii squeaked, cowering as the ball continued to grow.

But just as it looked like the Dark Lord would release the energy…

A bolt of green-ish lightning collided with the dark ball, decimating it instantly. I quickly turn to see who just saved our butts.

"Who dares-" the Dark Lord starts to yell, before a hooded figure comes into view.

And just before they removed the hood, my surroundings became dark.

"Wha-?" I started to ask, before seeing the notice on my 3DS. Just like before, the system was asking me to input another person to play as a figure in this world.

The person was apparently called the 'Great Sage,' and their description was as follows: 'A wise and powerful sage who roams the world helping others.'

Again, the system asked me to assign this new person with a face.

"Well… this is a bit of a moment-breaker." I sighed. "Oh well… at least I can cool off for a moment…"

Considerably cooled off from the sudden Dark Lord appearance after a few seconds, I tried to think of who would be a good person to play as this Great Sage. Surely it was the person that just saved us, right?

Then I thought about the Dark Lord. If the Dark Lord was Chara, then who would be the best person to be more or less their rival?

And the answer clicked in my head.

* * *

The area returned to normal as soon as I finished making the Great Sage. The hooded figure now had his hood down, and was rushing forward now.

They are dressed in a white-ish robe with blue and green highlights, and in their hand is a long white staff. With the hood is down, it gave us clear view of the Mii's face.

Groan again if you will, but this Great Sage had to be Sans, also from Undertale. Sue me, okay? Again: I'M A NERD!

Though… I don't think I noticed it to clearly when I made him, but his eyes were pure black with white pupils… save for the right one. That one was glowing brilliantly blue. I KNOW I didn't assign that to the guy. So either the game was taking on a new life, or I was just overthinking things at this point.

Sans's mouth was curled into a permanent smile, a big toothy one at that. They had only a small triangle nose in the middle of their face. All and all, I made sure that this Mii looked as closely to the real one as possible.

The Great Sage Sans stopped just in front of us, his eyes closed. "Hmm… so YOU'RE the thing that has been causing such a ruckus…"

"Well, not anymore! Leave now…" the Great Sage raised his staff, and green runes started circling him fast. "Or perish to my magical might!"

Did I say anything about how cool the Great Sage was being right now? He was TOTALLY awesome! I found myself wondering how on earth I could be that confident and awesome.

Dark Lord Chara gazed distastefully at Sans. "Didn't your mother tell you not to be a party-pooper? Oh, you'll pay for that… yes you will! Bye for now!"

With one last evil laugh, the Dark Lord quickly disappeared to go somewhere else. My Mii, who had been in pretty much a state of complete surprise for most of the Great Sage's arrival, finally seemed to let go. "And breath…" he mumbled, letting out the biggest sigh I've ever heard.

Susie quickly ran over to us, concerned. "What happened? I thought we were going the other way?"

Then she noticed the Sage standing next to us. "Who's that?" she asked, her eyes widening.

"How do you do?" The Sage asked, kindly smiling wider at us. His eyes were now both the normal black color. "They call me Sans."

"I-I'm… Cameron. This is my look-alike, Cameron, and erm… Susie." my Mii stammered, clearly taken back by Sans.

"You look tense. You all should relax." Sans eased. "The Dark Lord is gone, and monsters haven't come to this area yet."

Susie looked embarrassed to be in Sans's presence, for what reason I couldn't know. "Umm… Sans? W… who are you?"

"Who am I?" Sans asked. "That's a good question. People refer to me as the Great Sage. I did not know why, but this morning when I woke up, I had a sudden desire to travel to this field. I cannot say why. Perhaps it was just chance luck."

Maybe it was just me, but I could swear I heard our Guardian barely snickering in the back of my head.

My Mii looked a little downtrodden for some reason. Sans noticed this. "Is something the matter?" he asked.

"You… you took on the Dark Lord like it was nothing… and I barely was able to muster enough courage to fight him…" he mumbled, half-heartedly kicking a pebble.

"Hmm…" Sans hummed, looking at my Mii. "If I might ask, why exactly did the Dark Lord fight you?"

I took over from there. I told Sans pretty much the entire story… aside from the pendant around my neck. Honestly, I was fairly sure Sans had seen MUCH stranger things than a talking amulet, but… still, hearing voices? Probably not a good thing to tell someone who you barely know.

My Mii seemed to agree with me on that front. I glanced over and silently asked him while talking if I should tell, and my Mii responded with a short, curt shake no.

Once I finished, Sans looked thoughtful. "Interesting… so you're on a quest to defeat the Dark Lord… I see."

"But…" my Mii mumbled.

"You do not feel as though you are strong enough?" Sans finished.

My Mii nodded dejectedly. Sans closed his eyes for a moment. "I sense a strange power within you, however. It's small now, and you might not think much of it…"

Sans smiled at us. "But continue your journey, and surely your power will grow alongside you."

My Mii seemed a little bit more upbeat at Sans's words. Sans quickly bowed, saying, "I should be off. There are plenty of things we both have to do. Good day."

With that, he walked off in the direction he came. The three of us watched him the entire way until he disappeared behind a hill.

"... I guess… we should be on our way." I mumbled, trying to get everyone back on track. It more or less worked, and we continued along the pathway.

The Great Sage was pretty much all anyone could talk about for a good twenty minutes. "That Great Sage Sans was so cool!" My Mii awed.

Susie nodded. "'You're the thing causing such a ruckus!'" Susie imitated, striking a pose.

My Mii joined in, posing while saying, "'Leave now, or perish to my magical might!'"

"He was REALLY awesome." I agreed, unable to suppress my smile.

The Mii's sighed happily, saying, "So cool…!"

Unfortunately, we weren't able to stay focused on him for long, as more monsters started seeing us as a lovely treat. Susie and my Mii kept them at bay while I made sure that everyone was still good on health.

At one point or another, my Mii had used so much MP that he was almost out. That wasn't to big of a problem, considering that Susie also knew a healing move, but still, it worried me.

Then, our Guardian presented me with some helpful tools: an HP Sprinkle shaker and a MP Sprinkle shaker. The MP one didn't have nearly as many sprinkles as the HP one, but still, it was nice to have in a pinch.

Eventually we fought our way to something different: a signboard in the middle of the field. They pointed in two different directions, one towards the left, one towards the right.

"Hmmm…" I hummed. "I don't like this…"

"What should we do?" Susie asked worriedly.

"I… I don't know…" I murmured, looking in each direction.

Then my 3DS beeped.

I looked down at it, and suddenly, I noticed two buttons pointing in the directions we could go. Only these had labels on them.

"Guys… the left path seems more difficult than the other one." I stated, nervously looking down that path. "Should we take the other?"

My Mii and Susie nodded. We didn't feel as though we had nearly enough strength to take on a harder path at the moment.

Just as I was about to pick the easier path, however…

"Kya-!" a shout rang out, and the unmistakeable sound of something, or someone, getting hit.

And it was coming from the left path.

I glanced over at my friends. "Someone's in danger!"

"Left path!" Susie called out.

My Mii looked like he REALLY didn't want to, but he couldn't ignore the call of someone injured. I quickly picked the left path, and we ran forward.

The source of the scream was soon found. Another Mii girl was surrounded by a herd of four Goblins, all of them cackling at the Mii.

"S-stay away!" she yelled meekly, holding up something I couldn't quite make out from the distance. She made a whipping motion, and all the Goblins seemed to get lightly slapped in the face. But nothing else happened, and the Goblins quickly regrouped and advanced on her.

"Guys! We have to help!" I yelled, charging forward, my Mii and Susie right behind me.

The Goblins didn't even notice us until Susie came in and slapped one of them with her stick. It seemed to do more damage since the thing was distracted. My Mii tried to follow up with his frying pan to the same one, but the Goblin quickly dodged and all of them turned to the new, more interesting prey.

"Back off!" My Mii yelled, looking angry. I quickly tried selecting Home Cooking to get the injured girl back on her feet.

Then, all of a sudden, my 3DS was making sounds. I looked down just in time to see, 'First Laid-back Quirk!' and then, 'Get Serious.'

My Mii made a sort of stretching motion, and then he quickly twirled his arm in a circle. He seemed to be twice as focused as normal.

He quickly made the food and, while Susie provided distraction, got to the injured girl and gave her the food.

She wolfed it down without hesitation, and then stood up, suddenly maxed out on HP. The food my Mii cooked looked even BETTER than it normally did, and that was saying a lot. My Mii made some pretty good looking food.

"THANK you!" the new girl shouted happily, bringing attention from the Goblins back to her.

She turned just in time to see them lose interest in Susie and start waddling for her. But she was ready this time. She struck a quick pose, and then threw…

Wait, was that a microphone?

She threw her microphone like a boomerang, hitting all the Goblins in a line. The mic quickly returned to her hand like it had been nothing.

"Woah! How'd you-" I started to ask, before the Goblins tried to attack again. Susie quickly ran around and prepped her stick, but then my 3DS beeped again.

'First Kind Quirk!' and then 'Mercy.'

She seemed to do a little dance, before running up to one of the Goblins that looked damaged. Before she would've swung however, she appeared to look sorry. "The poor thing…" she murmured.

The Goblin seemed to make some sort of motion equivalent to thanking Susie. It then wandered away, completely uninterested in fighting us.

However, that still left three more.

All three of them decided to run forward and slap my Mii in the face, causing small bruises to build quickly.

Susie quickly held her arms wide. My 3DS beeped again, saying 'New Skill!' and 'Cure!'

Susie then held her stick staff to herself, as yellow runes started flying off of her. "Cure!" she called out.

The runes quickly surrounded my Mii, as his bruises soon faded away. "Thanks!" he called out to Susie.

My Mii quickly charged forward and bashed another Goblin, the new girl threw her microphone again, and two other Goblins fell down. The last one tried to put up one last fight, but Susie soon dispatched them with one last slap with her stick.

The monsters gone, I quickly forced them back into my system, and the battle was over.

With everything calming down, I quickly turned my attention to the new girl.

Now that everything was calm again, I could take a better look at her outfit. It was a sort of dancer's outfit, with an oversized polka-dotted bow on top of her head. Her dress consisted of being white at the top and around the shoulders, and light green on the skirt, belt, and her gloves. Her hair was an interesting pale blue-ish color, and her skin was quite pale looking, even by Mii standards.

Despite that, she looked positively joyful.

"Oh, THANK YOU so much for saving me!" the girl called out amorphously. "You both were SO COOL!"

My Mii opened his mouth to say something, but the girl wasn't nearly done. "I loved how you both just worked together without needing to say anything! And those outfits! Oooh I love them! I really like yours, mister! I'm a little confused as to why you used a frying pan, but I like it! Doesn't it get damaged whenever you use it? How did you make that good food? Have you ever tried your food? Have you ever been asked to work for a restaurant? Have you-"

The girl finally paused for a breath. Taking the opportunity, my Mii asked, "Are… are you okay?"

"Oh, I'm fine!" the girl responded. "My name is Brave. I'm happy to meet you!"

My Mii and Susie glanced at each other, a little taken back by this girls beyond cheery attitude.

"If I can ask… who exactly are you?" I asked.

"Oh, little ol' me?" Brave asked. "Well, I'm a rising Pop Star! I'm training so that I can inspire everyone around Miitopia!"

Brave sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. "I thought I could raise my popularity by defeating some Goblins, but… I took on a bit more than I could chew. Heh heh…"

"..." my Mii stayed quiet.

"But then you three came along! Thank you so much!" Brave thanked profusely.

"Well… you're very welcome, Ms. Brave." Susie politely thanked with a short bow.

Brave looked like she was thinking about something, before nodding her head. "You know, you guys are pretty strong… do you think I could join you? Now that I look at you, I think I've heard about you guys. Aren't you all a part of an epic quest of some sort to defeat Dark Lord Chara?"

We nodded, and Brave only looked more sure of herself. "Then I really wanna join you guys! If I join you, and help you defeat the Dark Lord, then I can really get my career going. Plus, I know a little bit about fighting. Can I?"

A quick glance over at my friends, and I shrugged. "Why not? Welcome to the party."

Brave smiled broadly. "Sweet! We're gonna rock that Dark Lord!"

 _Brave joined the party!_

With that, the four of us started to head on our way.

Two more people had befriended us and joined our mission to save Miitopia.

Who else could we expect to join us?

I didn't know what to expect…

But somehow, I was quite excited by whatever lie ahead.

* * *

 **So? What did you think?**

 **I honestly think this is the fastest I've gotten a chapter out in a VERY long time. I guess I must be really excited about writing this one!**

 **Just as a formality, please don't hate me for what characters I decide to put in my story. Miitopia is a game about placing your favorite characters into the story itself. I know that people might not particularly like some characters I have or am going to place into the story, but please don't hate me for doing so.**

 **Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter regardless! Am I doing good here? I know Miitopia isn't the most popular section of stories, and probably not many people are going to see this story to begin with, but I still appreciate any praise/criticism.**

 **Until next time guys…**

 **Stay awesome!**


	3. Enter the Strange Grove

**Hello there, readers! Welcome to the next chapter of Miitopia: Invasion of the Lost Faces!**

 **NO TIME TO WASTE. LET'S START READING.**

* * *

Chapter 3: Enter the Strange Grove

The four of us continued along the path ahead, cautious of any sign of danger further along.

Of course, I was a little distracted by our recent addition.

Brave was a chatterbox and a half. If she wanted to say something, she said it no matter what. It didn't matter to her if it was the dumbest question ever, she wanted to talk about it somehow.

It might have just been my imagination, but I swear that she wanted to talk to me the most. She asked me just about EVERYTHING and THEN some.

"So, you're not a Mii?"

"Yeah, exactly.

"Then how did you get here?"

"Umm… this thing changed the world as I knew it?"

"Do you know why it did?"

"Absolutely not."

"Do you think-"

I sighed, and tried to focus on the path ahead of us. I was hoping that there would be another super convenient Inn just around the corner. Not to sleep, it was still the middle of the day, but just as a place to rest. That Inn was one of the only places that felt safe 100% of the time. Everywhere else, it just felt like something was about to jump out from behind a corner…

"Hey guys? Do you see Bob Ross's face anywhere around here?" my Mii asked.

"Very specific." I noted.

"I just feel like we'll find his face first." my Mii commented.

"Wouldn't it be attached to a monster?" Susie asked.

"Probably?" I shrugged.

"Less talky, more looky." Brave responded, skipping forward happily.

The rest of us were left to catch up to her. We started talking with worry about where these faces that the Dark Lord took would be. "Maybe he took them back to his home?" I suggested.

"Where would his home possibly be?" my Mii asked.

"I dunno, somewhere with lots of fire and lava, and jagged cliffs galore? Like most final boss areas?" I suggested.

"You play too many video games." my Mii commented.

"I don't understand that sentence. I don't use 'too many' and 'video games' in the same sentence." I responded. Laughs were exchanged.

The conversation continued for a while, until we were looking around a large clearing.

"There's gotta be something around here…" Susie murmured.

"What could possibly be around here?" Brave asked innocently.

Suddenly, it felt like it got darker. "Woah… is it bedtime already?" Brave asked.

"It can't be… the sky's still blue." Susie murmured, carefully holding her stick up. "Something doesn't feel right…"

I paled. I remembered something from a video game that happened almost identically to this. I looked up.

The sun was being blocked by a dark shape.

And that shape was getting bigger.

"GUYS! HIT THE DIRT!" I yelled, quickly tackling all of the Mii's to the side.

About where we were moments before, a giant shape collided with the ground. The four of us quickly stood up and prepared for a fight.

The thing quickly rose up. Now that we could see it properly, it was a massive butterfly, far bigger than the Rock Moths we had encountered previously.

It appeared as though it was looking at us, but I couldn't see any eyes anywhere on it.

Then, a flash appeared around us, and a bright ball of some kind floated down.

It was Bob Ross's face.

"What's happening…?" the face asked, confused.

The face quickly spiraled towards the faceless butterfly, quickly merging the two together.

It was battle time.

The newly created Butterfly Bob Ross fluttered forward, glaring at us with it's freshly stolen face.

Susie charged forward and slapped the creature in the face, followed by my Mii's frying pan.

Just as I was about to think that Brave was going to go, the butterfly quickly flew forward and slapped both my Mii and then Brave in the face.

Brave tried to sling her microphone at the thing, but she wasn't quite that strong, and it didn't appear to do much damage.

The other two again tried to smack the thing, but it still wasn't anywhere close to going down. The butterfly again dashed forward and slapped Susie in the face, and then again to Susie.

Susie didn't have much HP left to begin with, and that second strike proved to be her downfall.

"Sorry peeps…" she murmured, falling face first into the ground.

The Guardian then whispered to me, " _Well that's not good. If their HP falls to zero, they can't fight anymore! Luckily for you, I have just the thing!"_

I suddenly felt my pocket grow heavy again, and when I reached in, I found an EXTREMELY small shaker bottle, with pink sprinkles inside.

" _These are called Life Sprinkles, and they will restore someone who has been knocked down! But they are extremely precious. Use only in ABSOLUTE emergencies!"_

'Right now, this IS an emergency…' I thought to myself, quickly dashing over to Susie. I quickly turned the shaker upside down and gave it a firm shake.

Everything in the bottle quickly fell out, landing over Susie. A moment passed, and then the sprinkles seemed to shine over Susie's bruises and cuts. Another moment, and she was fine, her eyes open again. "Wha-?" she asked, slowly standing.

"They worked!" I exclaimed, quickly dashed back to the side.

Susie stood back up, looking a little disoriented, but otherwise perfectly fine.

The butterfly, despite being quite hurt, still managed to glare at us and attempt to dash forward. However, my Mii was ready for that, and just as the thing reached him he ducked and then threw himself upwards, with his frying pan following in a wide arc in front of him.

The butterfly fell over, completely stunned from the surprise attack.

The fight quickly reached the end as Susie and Brave quickly dashed forward and gave the creature one last hit each. The butterfly shook, and then fell flat to the ground. Bob Ross's face's eyes were closed.

I quickly pointed my 3DS at the thing, out of instinct. However, I lurched forward, taken back by the EXTREME force the thing was putting on me. Even though pretty much all the other monsters had taken quite the amount of effort to absorb, THIS thing was in a completely different league. "G-guys! Help!"

My Mii and the others quickly held onto my back and pulled, heels digging into the ground. It was like reeling in the biggest fish in the lake.

My friends pulled as hard as they could, as did I, as the butterfly slowly slid over.

Eventually, it was fully absorbed into the system again. As soon as the face flew off the thing, uttering a quick thank you before flying off, all of us fell over backwards.

I was winded, oddly enough. Trying to force that thing back into my system was like trying to pull a raging bull backwards when it wants to only go forwards. If I hadn't had my friends behind me there… I shuddered to think.

"So… did… did we save Bob Ross?" I asked, staring at the sky.

"I guess so…" my Mii muttered.

"That thing… was much tougher than I thought…" Susie whispered.

"WE DID IT!" Brave shouted happily, loud enough to where the rest of us jumped up in surprise. "Woo! That was awesome! We took that butterfly guy DOWN!"

Brave merrily skipped around us as we slowly stood back up. I quickly gathered the spoils from the butterfly, a bag of gold and some more butterfly honey, this one purple in color. "This actually doesn't look half bad…" I muttered.

"Eat some, then. We gotta keep our wits about us." my Mii told me. He had a second jar of the pink butterfly honey, and was eating it quite quickly.

"Wait… where did you-?" I started to ask.

"I got this from a previous Moth. I didn't steal it, if that's what you are thinking." my Mii replied. Though… I think his eyes might've twitched to the left _juuust_ barely.

I squinted at my Mii, before turning back to the purple honey. I pulled out a small spoon that I had in my pocket, (don't ask why I had that) and carefully took a small spoonful of the stuff.

I tasted it. I was quite surprised. The taste was like… grapes and honey mixed together in just the right way to taste good together. The sweet grapes mixed together with the sweetened honey, and created a truly unique flavor.

Before I knew it, I had already empted the entire jar, a small amount of purple honey still on my face. It really was good… I found myself almost wistfully staring into the jar.

Susie was apparently watching me the whole time. "Was it good?" she asked.

I jumped a little and spun around. "Oh… I'm so sorry, did you want-"

"No, no… I'm not really a big fan of butterfly honey, to be honest." Susie responded, smiling at me. "I'm just… a little hungry, and wondered if we have any food left over."

I dug around in my bag a little. "Well… we have this?" I intoned, pulling out Goblin Ham.

Susie pursed her lips slightly. "I guess… I can give it a shot…" she murmured, taking the plate.

She tenderly prodded one of the two slices and then gently picked a piece off. "Well… here goes…"

She nibbled at the tiny piece. She seemed to mull over the taste for a moment, before saying, "Actually… that's not half bad."

She gently took a larger bite out of one slice, humming gently. "Yeah. That's actually pretty good."

"Hmm." I hummed in mild surprised. "May I?"

Susie nodded. I took a piece for myself and popped it in my mouth.

The taste actually was pretty good. It was kinda like freshly cooked ham with a slight zing of spices and herbs. "That is pretty good." I admitted.

Susie ate the rest of the ham. "Well… I didn't think that stuff would be good, but you learn something new everyday."

"Exactly." I agreed. "We should probably keep going, who knows what-"

"Hey, guys!" Brave's voice called out. "I think I see something interesting up ahead!"

I looked over. Brave was quite the ways away. My Mii and Susie followed after me and I jogged over to get to her.

"What do you see? A monster?" I asked.

"No! Something better!" she stated, pointing ahead.

A chest of some kind was half-hidden in the rocks nearby. If you weren't looking for it, you would never have seen it.

"Oooh… what do we have here…?" I murmured excitedly.

Susie and my Mii joined us as I knelt before the chest. "Whaddya guys say? Open it?"

The other three nodded, so I attempted to open the lid. But that's when I noticed the lock. "Oh. Right. Locks." I muttered bitterly.

Then my 3DS beeped. I looked down at it. Two more options were laid out for me. 'Open' and 'Leave it.'

"Hmm… I guess that works." I murmured, tapping 'Open.'

The lock gently flashed gold, then the lid flew open like nothing was holding it closed in the first place.

The contents literally flew out into my arms. A large bag of gold!

"Sweet!" I laughed, quickly letting my 3DS do the math for me. In one bag, our gold count quickly grew by three hundred G.

"Now that's some good treasure." I stated happily.

My Mii rolled his eyes. "I give it two days tops for us to spend it all."

Brave snickered at that. Susie looked up at the sky innocently, her smile a tad bigger. I stuck my tongue out at my Mii, tucking the money away.

The path forward continued to be nice, and conversation was held all throughout the entire trip.

Though… for some reason, once I picked up the money, I could swear that I felt something watching us. The feeling wasn't hostile, but… just watching us.

I almost asked the others if they felt something similar, but I didn't want to be seen as though I was looking my touch already.

The area around us continued to look more or less the same, but I could swear that trees were starting to become more frequent than the rocks around here.

Then, I found I was right. Before us, suddenly, we found a large tree line. I was confused. "Wait… where is this?"

I looked back down at my reality-controlling game system and managed to pulled up the world map. Apparently we had traveled almost the entire length of Easin Hills. Now we were heading southward towards a rather large forest, apparently called the Strange Grove.

"It looks as though this path doubles back towards Greenhorne." I murmured, giving my friends a look at the map.

"I think we should try to take it. After all… we needed to head back that way one time or another." Susie declared.

I hesitantly looked into the forest. It seemed to be quite choked with more than just trees, and I highly doubted there would be an extremely well-placed inn somewhere in there.

Again, that feeling of being watched struck me again. I turned around, but I saw nothing. Just a lone tree and a small rock.

"You okay?" my Mii asked, looking back with me.

"Just… being careful." I managed, turning back towards the forest. "I guess… we should just dive in."

And we slowly entered the forest.

* * *

I don't recommend trying to cross through a forest is you hate the following:

A) Rough terrain.

B) Unidentifiable noises, from you or otherwise.

C) Not being able to see anything but feeling like other things can see you easily.

D) Trying to remember which plants won't instantly give you a rash if you accidentally touch them.

E) Sweltering temperatures.

Or F) Trying to put up with a friend that loves to complain about everything.

In other words, this was JUST a GRAND OLD ADVENTURE.

If you couldn't tell, that was sarcasm. Trekking through the forest SUCKED.

Sure, I could get that it was rather pretty for the most part, and there was more or less a pathway we could travel through without having to push TOO many branches out of the way.

But still… it wasn't a hundred percent fun. I'm a nerd who doesn't like doing much in the way of physical exercise. I SWEAR I was a full course banquet for all sorts of little bugs.

My Mii didn't look totally happy either. "It's so hot in here…"

"You've been saying that for the past ten minutes straight…" I moaned.

Susie wiped her forehead. "It's not THAT bad. Just don't think about it. Oh! And have some water."

My Mii took a quick swig from Susie's canteen. He seemed a little better. "Whew… thank you Susie."

"Can I see that…" I asked. My Mii handed me the canteen and I took a slightly larger drink.

"Please don't drain it all before we even get halfway in…" Susie pleaded with me.

I quickly stopped drinking. "I'm not THAT bad." I complained lightly, handing her canteen back.

Brave was ahead of us, dancing merrily. "C'mon guys! We'll never get anywhere if you keep drinking water!"

"When did she decide to be the leader…?" my Mii asked, nevertheless hurrying up to catch up, Susie and me right behind him.

Brave looked ecstatic. "Oooh! I LOVE forests! They're so… rugged! And lush!"

"And filled with monsters, probably…" I murmured.

"But that just makes it more unpredictable!" Brave agreed happily.

As if to punctuate that statement, I heard something move nearby, to my right. My Mii quickly raised his frying pan towards the noise.

Nothing came out. We stood there for a good minute until we were sure nothing was there.

"False alarm." I called out, straightening back up again.

The way forward continued. Noises continued to sound out all around us.

I felt my stomach growl. Even though I had eaten that butterfly honey moments ago, I was still quite hungry.

"I'm so hungry…" I murmured.

Brave didn't look better. For once, she seemed a tad less energetic than before. "I forgot to eat breakfast this morning too… I'm hungry as well…"

Then I heard the sound of chewing. "Omm nom nom…"

I turned just in time to see my Mii wiping his mouth, like he just ate something. "You better have brought something else for us, bud! We're hungry too!"

Susie nodded. "I'm hungry too… what food did you bring, anyway?"

"Oh, I didn't." my Mii replied casually. "I didn't eat anything."

"Whaaaaat?" the three of us asked him ludicrously.

"I'm trying to trick my stomach. If I make eating noises, perhaps that'll make me feel full." my Mii explained.

"This adventure is taking a real mental toll of Cameron…" Susie blubbered, crying a little bit. Out of hunger or from my Mii, I couldn't tell.

"I just hope he'll last till we find somewhere to buck down for the night…" I murmured, shaking my head in disbelief.

Indeed, the sun was slowly sinking, if the golden color that shined through the trees was any indication. "We have to be getting close to something by now…" I murmured.

Then…

 _*snap!*_

A twig snapping.

Instantly my friends drew their weapons, looking all over for the noise.

Then, from some nearby shrubbery, out came…

A mushroom.

A literal mushroom started hopping out of the brush in our general direction.

It… started dancing.

"What… the…" I murmured, completely confused.

"Is that a dancing mushroom?" my Mii asked, just as lost.

"See! This forest is awesome! Even the plants have a song in their heart!" Brave insisted, dancing with the mushroom playfully.

Then another came from behind the first one. Now we had two dancing mushrooms, both of them… rather good at it. Believe me, I know absolutely nothing about dancing, but I could tell that these things were actually putting some work into it.

I almost involuntarily started to smile. "These things… are actually kinda cool…"

Then I heard something else. And my eyes detected movement just behind the mushrooms.

"Brave! Hit the dirt!" I yelled, tackling my Mii to the ground, getting a yelp.

If Brave had been any less of a good listener, she would've been knocked in the back of the head to the ground by the third mushroom flying out of the shrubbery like a rocket. It slammed into a tree, making the other two quickly hop to it.

That's when I noticed that the eyes on the backs of the mushrooms.

"They're monsters!" I yelled, quickly pulling my Mii back up.

The mushroom trio, which my 3DS quickly identified as a horde of 'Smileshrooms,' quickly regrouped and, now with their eyes facing us, gave us another dance, I guess trying to distract us or something. But that wasn't going to work this time.

Susie quickly slapped one with her stick, and my Mii followed right behind her. Brave stepped forward, but this time my 3DS beeped. It read, 'New Skill!' and then, 'Encore!'

Brave did a little twirl, then stood in front of my Mii, our hardest hitter. "Encore!" she shouted happily, notes flying off of her mic and around my Mii.

He seemed inspired. "Okay!" he agreed, and thus, he got another turn.

"I have an idea…" my Mii murmured, then seemed to charge up.

My 3DS beeped again, reading, 'New Skill!' and 'Flambé!'

He held his frying pan before him, and the thing seemed to get searingly red hot. He charged forward and then slammed the first Smileshroom with everything he was worth. Even though the creature didn't fall over, it was still quite damaged.

The first two mushrooms attacked, but the third… just stared at us.

Then, it hopped up a little, and then… seemed to start making a funny face. A mouth hidden on the underside of the mushroom cap was revealed, and it joined in making the funny face.

And it appeared as though it was looking at me while it did so.

For some reason, that face…

Why was that face so funny?

I snorted. Then that turned into a chuckle, and then laughter, and then full-on laughter. Like… 'about-to-start-crying-your-eyes-out' funny.

If the others looked shocked, I couldn't tell. I could barely stand up, I was too busy laughing.

I did my best to focus on the fight. Susie just went, and slapped the first Smileshroom again, this time defeating it.

I attempted to direct my Mii, but I found that impossible from how hard I was laughing. I could see on my 3DS, however, now there was another option present on the thing, labeled 'Autobattle,' and it was checked.

My Mii prepared another Flambé, and aimed it at another Smileshroom, while Brave threw her mic again and defeated the second one. That left one more.

"My look-alike! Get it together!" my Mii shouted.

"I… I can't…" I breathed, trying my best to stop laughing. "Too… funny…"

Then the mushroom again showed off it's funny face to me.

Now I really WAS on the ground, unable to stand as the face refreshed itself in my mind. I was laughing harder than I ever had before, rolling all over the place in a frenzy.

Thankfully, the fight was soon finished, with all of my friends quickly vanquishing the last monster.

As soon as the battle was over, I felt the feeling of laughter slowly die down in my throat, and it became easier to stop laughing.

"Hahh… hah hah… hooo…" I breathed, finally calming down.

"Are you okay?" Susie asked, looking down at me.

"I-I'm… I'm okay." I breathed, the laughter almost all the way gone. "What… what was that?"

"I should've mentioned this… some monsters know how to exploit our emotions, like you've just seen. Those mushrooms were using some sort of magic on you." Susie explained gently, helping me back up to my feet.

My 3DS was beeping more and more, trying to absorb the bodies of the mushrooms. I quickly allowed it to do so, albeit I was a little shaky from laughing so hard.

"That… that was not fun…" I murmured, once the mushrooms were safely back inside the system. "That… honestly hurt after a while…"

"Maybe we should rest for a little. You would do well to have a short break after that laughing fit." my Mii responded, partly looking worried for me, and partly looked rather tired.

"No… I-I'm okay. I can go." I insisted.

Even Brave looked nervous. "I'm normally not one to agree with breaks, but… are you sure, Cameron's look-alike? You were laughing really hard, and you look kinda pale…"

"I-I'm fine… we just need to keep going. The longer we stand here, the more monsters will try to find us. We can't just take a break every thirty seconds, especially when it's getting so late."

I had a point. The sky was quickly growing darker, the noises around us were becoming slightly more frequent.

"Still…" Susie tried one more time.

"Come on, guys. I'll be fine until we find somewhere safe to duck down for the night." I insisted one last time, brushing myself off.

My friends didn't seem to like it, but they finally agreed and we all continued along the way.

The noises of night were surrounding us at this point, and I was growing nervous. It would be very easy for something, or someone, to ambush us here, in this thick vegetation…

"Am… am I crazy…" my Mii started, pointing. "Or do I see a light over in that direction?"

We looked. It was small, yes, but I could agree that there DID seem to be some sort of light over there.

We headed for that. We didn't know what it was, but something that had light couldn't be ALL that bad, right?

However, the light… faded the closer we got to it. We tried to run for it, but the terrain was far too rough for that, so we could only speed walk.

Eventually, however, the light disappeared.

Now we were stranded in the middle of nowhere, with no idea where we wer-

"Wait a minute! Guys, look over there!" I called out.

I saw an all-too familiar sign nearby. An Inn.

"Oh, thank heavens!" Susie exclaimed happily.

We all quickly ran for the Inn.

Despite being pretty much in the middle of nowhere, this Inn looked just as nice as the one back in Easin Hills. Why it was here was beyond me, but at this point I could've cared less.

The four of us quickly entered. There were a few Mii's lingering about in the Inn, but for the most part it seemed pretty empty.

This time Susie said she'd get the rooms, to which Brave responded by saying that she wanted to help. The two of them headed off to find the room, leaving me and my Mii alone.

"Ugh… what a day…" I murmured, slumping down in a nearby chair.

"I know, right?" my Mii agreed, sitting down next to me.

"I'm bushed…" I breathed.

"I'll bet you were." a third voice spoke up.

I whirled to the other side.

Leaning against the wall not far from us, that strange man from the last Inn, Purple Guy, was watching us carefully.

"Y-you!" I murmured.

"So you do remember me." Purple Guy stated, almost sounding amazed. Almost. "I would've figured you forgot me by now."

My Mii looked confused. "Who's that?"

Purple Guy slid into the seat opposite us. "Name's Purple Guy. I've met with tall guy over here, so introductions shouldn't be long."

"You mean you essentially forced me to meet you yesterday." I corrected.

"Forced meeting, introductions, what's the difference these days?" Purple Guy responding, lazily waving his hand.

My Mii was watching our exchange like a tennis match. "So… it's good to meet you, Mr…?" he cautiously greeted.

"Purple Guy." Purple Guy responded.

"Er… okay. So… what'cha doing here, Purple Guy?" my Mii asked.

"I'm just looking for opportunity." Purple Guy casually answered.

"How'd you even get here?" I asked. "Last I saw you, you were over at that Easin Hills Inn. How'd you get here by yourself?"

"It's called 'traveling.'" Purple Guy retorted, with a faint trace of sarcasm.

I sighed exasperatedly. "I mean HOW did you. I mean, we were making pretty good time and we only got here now, but you look you've been here for a lot longer."

"Oh believe me, I took my time." Purple Guy responded. "I actually only just got here… you got any food?"

"No." I responded.

"Hundred gold for any food." Purple Guy added.

I tossed him a Goblin Ham.

He took a few nibbles at it, setting down the aforementioned pouch of gold.

At that point, Susie came back. "Guys, I got the roo-"

Then she saw Purple Guy. Her eyes widened. "Who…?"

"Well, hello there sweetheart." Purple Guy greeted. "Don't mind me, I'm just having a chat with your friends. Nothing wrong with that. Fact, I was 'bout to leave."

He did just that, standing up and then walking away. Again, I had that weird moment where one second I could see him, the next, he was gone. Like he never was there to begin with.

"That guy weirds me out…" I murmured.

"Really?" my Mii asked. "I thought he was kinda cool. I mean, he was very calm, collected… he was sure of everything he did and said."

"I guess that's true… and he honored his deal of paying us…" I agreed, taking the gold. Sure enough, a hundred coins were inside, which quickly joined our other ones.

Then I noticed someone missing. "Hang on. Where's Brave?" I asked.

"She went ahead to see our rooms we got. Kept saying something about 'wanting dibs on the best bed.'" Susie responded.

My Mii rolled his eyes. "Guess we should hit the hay. I'm bushed…" he murmured.

I agreed, and the three of us headed for a room.

Turns out that Brave had already fallen fast asleep. When I opened one of the doors Susie said was ours, Brave was already buried into a bed, sleeping soundly.

"Huh. I'm surprised she managed to sleep so quickly." I murmured, closing the door. "Probably best to not disturb her."

Apparently that's a trait shared among ALL Mii's, as both my Mii and Susie fell asleep mere moments after climbing into bed.

I, once again, stayed up. I made sure all of my things were properly put away and everything was nice and orderly before heading for the bathroom.

I washed my face, staring into the mirror once the water cleared up. I could still feel a small ache in my gut from when I had been laughing.

"So that means they can attack or affect me…" I mused.

All this time I thought I had been just a bystander. That the enemies would more or less ignore me as long as my friends were there, swinging their weapons around. But… that Smileshroom definitely looked at me before trying to make me laugh.

Meaning that the enemies can and probably would try to attack me at some point, and I would be pretty much defenseless against them.

"..."

The thought frightened me.

'What… what do I… do?' I thought.

No answer came to me.

I took a deep breath. 'Okay… just, calm down. Odds are good that enemies will probably still ignore me… mostly. Just… don't worry about it right now.'

I found it much harder to sleep that night.

Once I managed to fall asleep that night, I started having really weird, random dreams.

I imagined that I was clinging to my Mii by his hand as he dangled precariously off of a cliff.

I dreamed of a dark, damp cave with Susie looking around, calling for me.

I dreamed of the feeling of having your face stolen.

Most of them made no sense to me, and I didn't remember them clearly.

However… one stuck out very well to me.

It was about Purple Guy… as if I was looking through his view. I knew it was his view because I saw a large knife in 'my' hand. He was peeking through some bushes and… he was looking at our group And we were getting attacked by something, and losing quite badly.

Exactly what we were being attacked by wasn't clear, but it was clear from the way I was shouting and how the others were barely able to stand that were were getting our butts handed to us.

He gripped his dagger a little tighter and then…

That's where it ended.

When it did, I slowly opened my eyes in the real world.

Morning sunlight streamed through the window.

'M… morning already?' I thought. 'I just laid down though…'

I blinked a few times, before slowly sitting up.

'That… that felt real… but we haven't been getting owned like that…' I thought quietly. 'And… Purple Guy was following us?'

That felt a little creepy to me. Maybe I should confront him about it? Surely he's still here.

Without waiting for the others to wake up, I quickly gathered myself and then quietly left the room.

The day must've been really early, because hardly anyone was in the lobby or the dining hall.

Thankfully, Purple Guy was up. He was sitting at a table in the dining room, his feet kicked up on the dining table. He wasn't facing me.

I slowly approached him, suddenly unsure of what I would say. 'Hey you! Are you following us?'

I wasn't even sure how he would take seeing me this hour. Fortunately, I got my answer for that one pretty quickly.

"Kid, you know you shouldn't sneak up on people, right?" Purple Guy asked, turning around to look at me.

I froze. "How… how did you know that was me?"

Purple Guy rolled his eyes. "Who else would be trying to talk to me at five in the morning?" he asked.

I blushed hotly. I suddenly realized that not many people must've really talked with him as much as I had been these past few days.

"Anyway…" Purple Guy intoned, motioning for me to sit. "What's got you looking for me at this hour?"

Suddenly, the moment I sat down, I started losing my nerve. How could I just accuse him of something like following us?

"Well… I'll just give it to you straight." I started. "Last night, I had a dream that you helped us when we were getting owned by some monster in these very woods. I don't know if it was just a dream, or if it was some sort of sign, or what… I just thought you'd have some idea."

If Purple Guy was confused or off-put by the news, he didn't show it. "Huh. Now that IS rather interesting… almost as much as the one I had about you."

THAT took me back a few steps. "Wait… what?"

"Last night, when I managed to fall asleep, I dreamt that you and your Mii were fighting something, but then you started falling, so you pleaded for someone to save you. But no one did."

It was quiet for all but a few moments.

"D-did… did we… you know…" I asked, unable to finish the sentence.

"Not from what I saw. It ended just before the enemy landed their last attack. For all I know, a hole swallowed both you and the monsters." Purple Guy stated, still in that extremely relaxed position.

It was quiet again, before Purple Guy started talking again. "Hey kid. Don't take these things to heart. I mean, how many dreams have you had before this one that could allude to something that might happen in the future?"

"...none." I stated.

"Then there you go." Purple Guy finished.

"You know…" I started, unable to contain myself. "I still don't think you're being 100% honest with me about things. I mean, you were a LITTLE too confident in your answer when you said that you arrived not long after we did..."

Purple Guy glared at me. "Are you insinuating that I followed you here?" he asked, his voice a little gruffer than normal.

My face paled. That had been exactly what I was thinking, but I didn't want to say it aloud.

"Listen, kid." the thief explained, leaning forward. "Next time, don't accuse someone of something you don't know about. Besides, what reason would I have to follow your group?"

I don't know if it was fate or the Guardian, but suddenly my mouth opened.

"Because you're curious about me and my group." I stated plainly, before slamming my mouth shut.

For the first time, Purple Guy looked taken back. "...what?" he asked. His voice sounded another tad deeper than normal.

I started to sweat, but it was clearly too late to back up now. "You… you just met this group, and… we've run into each other twice now. You can't say that you aren't the LITTLEST bit curious as to what we're doing. Why else would YOU approach me both times we've seen each other?"

I must've hit a mark. For the first time, Purple Guy looked flustered and slightly confused, though only slightly. He quickly stood and muttered, "The day I'm curious about what you're doing will be the day the monsters grow friendly. Now, I have things to do. Leave me in peace."

He dashed off far faster than normal.

'Did… did I just make him leave in confusion?' I asked myself, almost… satisfied.

I sat there for a moment, making sure that he wasn't coming back anytime soon. When I was sure he wasn't, I slowly started my way back up to the bedrooms.

Since I was fairly sure the others were still sleeping, I decided to see if Brave was up yet.

She was. The moment I entered the door I found her gently humming a song to herself, staring out the window without her bow. Otherwise she was already dressed and ready for the day.

"Mornin'." I greeted, knocking on the door.

Brave stopped humming and turned around. "Oh! Cameron's look-alike. Sorry, did I wake you?"

"Nah, I've been up for a while now." I denied, leaning against the wall. "How'd you sleep?"

"Honestly? That was the best snooze I've had in years…" she stated, stretching gently. "I don't usually sleep that well."

"That's good though, right? You got enough sleep today?" I asked.

Brave grinned. "Yep. Are the others up yet? I'm starving!"

The thought of food made my stomach roll over too. "I'll go check. Surely they must be by now..."

"I'll come with." Brave added, grabbing her bow.

We left her room and headed back for my Mii's room. I knocked on the door, to which I heard my Mii groan.

"Lemme sleep for five more minutes…" I heard him complain.

"Cameron, don't be rude." Susie's voice quickly responded. "Who is it?"

"I stepped out for a bit. Are you guys up yet?" I asked, opening the door and stepping in.

I got my answer immediately. Susie was up and already dressed, holding her stick. My Mii was hidden underneath a bundle of blankets, quietly praying for more sleep.

I lightly groaned. "Come on, dude. Let's go."

"No. I just found a position that's comfortable…" he complained.

I pulled the covers off him. He was lying on his side, his arms by his head and his legs crossed together. "You look like you were slapped in the face by a monster. Now come on."

"Uuuughh…" he moaned again.

Brave offered her own idea. "C'mon Cameron! You'll wake up quick if you get up and dance with me!" she exclaimed, starting to dance on the spot.

Susie offered a different solution. "Maybe we should just let him sleep. He looks tired still..." she mumbled.

"Relax guys, I've got this..." I whispered, before turning back to my Mii. "Alright then. More food for the rest of us." I reminded him, turning around for a second and then turning back.

"Where's food?" he asked, suddenly fully dressed and his bed neatly made. "I like food, so where's the food?"

I grinned. "And that's why I like this guy." I stated, clapping him on the back. "Hopefully they started on breakfast downstairs by now."

We left the room, the talk mostly centered around what food we'd see today. We entered the dining hall and found a bunch of Mii's starting to mill about. Perhaps some Mii's would start cooking like last time?

We patiently took a seat and waited.

Slowly, a small force of three chef Mii's entered the room, much less than the ten they had back at the previous inn. They started cooking, and I started growing more and more hungry.

"Let's start a line now, so that we have first picks." Brave offered.

"I wholeheartedly agree with that plan." I agreed, and we all ran to start the line.

* * *

 _One breakfast sequence later…_

* * *

"Mmm… that was good…" I mumbled, slowly walking with my friends back up to the rooms we had.

"Yeah… that should keep us full for a while…" my Mii mumbled, gently rubbing his belly.

I rolled my eyes. "Maybe, but I feel like YOU should be joining those chef's in cooking. I'm pretty sure I saw two of them shoot you a dirty look while you grabbed sausages."

My Mii shrugged. "They're part of the staff, I'm not."

I rolled my eyes again. "What difference does it make? You could still help, ya know."

My Mii and I continued to lightly bicker back and forth for a bit, but in the end we gave up and finished gathering our stuff.

"Hey, Cameron's look-alike?" Susie asked, straightening her hat.

"What's up?" I asked, turning.

"What's that thing you have in your pocket?" she asked. "I noticed it when I woke up, but I didn't know what it was..."

I pulled out my phone. "What, this? It's my phone." I stated, handing to her.

Susie's eyes gently widened. "You mean, like, a portable one?"

"You've never seen a cell phone before?" I asked, honestly taken back.

She curiously tapped the touch screen. "I mean… I've heard of them, but I didn't really know anyone who had one, so I had no reason to get one either…"

"Fair enough, I suppose…" I murmured,

"Soo… does it work?" she asked.

I sighed. "If it does, I can't get to anyone. I've already tried calling at least three people I know, but it just rang a little and then went to voicemail."

Susie looked at me a little sadly. "Your family?" she asked.

The words felt like an anvil resting on my back. "Yeah… my family…"

I really wanted to know where they were. They had to be somewhere, right? I can't be the only one who was swept up in this mess.

Susie gently patted me on the shoulder. "I'm sure they're okay. And I'm sure we'll find them somewhere."

I looked up to see her gentle face and… I slowly managed to smile a little. "Thanks… Susie. I appreciate that…"

Gently, I reached up and gently rubbed her head. I remembered that Mii's liked that from my old Tomodachi Life game, and Susie was no exception.

When I let up, Susie seemed much happier than before. "How'd you know that I like that?"

I shrugged. "Pure dumb luck?" I asked, though I purposely smirked at her.

I soon after called a quick meeting to make sure everyone was ready to go, and then we all started to head out.

Back into the forest.

Little did we know…

What would be waiting for us when we left.

* * *

 **Soo, what do you guys think? Am I doing good here?**

 **I hope I am, anyway. This is the first story where I felt like I'm really being creative with the original game.**

 **Oh, and… I can already see that some people will probably want to be some of the heroes in this story. But, ah… I'm just gonna say it now, I've already determined the characters that'll be the heroes.**

 **BUT!**

 **I haven't said that no one can't offer their suggestions for some of the minor characters! 'Course, I have some ideas already for some of them, but if you guys have a particular character in mind, let me know and I'll think about it!**

 **But until next time guys, I have only one thing to say…**

 **Stay awesome! =D**


	4. Full Party!

**Hello hello dear readers, and welcome to another chapter of Miitopia: Invasion of the Lost Faces.**

 **I'll talk more in the ending. Let's start reading!**

* * *

Chapter 4: Full Party!

The sounds of the forest soon greeted us as we entered the lush vegetation.

We had entered the forest in high spirits, but we hadn't expected it to be so HOT. It wasn't long before all four of us were drenched with sweat.

Thank the Guardian we all prepared ahead of time. Each of us had a large, full canteen of ice cold water. As long as we didn't drink it all at once, we would be fine. Plus, on top of that, I had managed to purchase an HP banana for each of them just before we left, so we had that as a backup.

"Uhh… guys?" Brave questioned.

"Hm?" I hummed, looking back at her.

"My canteen's empty!" she exclaimed, shaking her upside down canteen. "Someone else must've drank my water, cause I haven't had a sip yet all day!"

"It wasn't me!" my Mii quickly defended.

"Don't look at me either!" Susie defended as well.

"I've got my own here too. I didn't steal yours." I quickly stated.

Brave glared at all of us for a moment, as if trying to see if one of us was lying, before she blinked. "Wait… oh yeah! I forgot, I drank all of it yesterday, I just forgot to fill it today."

"Seriously?!" my Mii angrly complained, looking a little miffed.

"Wow." Susie mumbled with a sideways glance.

"Not cool, Brave." I calmly stated with a shake of my head.

We continued on our way, after Brave quickly ran back to the Inn to fill her thing back up. Thankfully we weren't a really insane distance away, so it only took a few minutes.

Once we were sure everyone had everything, we continued on the path.

My Mii and Susie started talking not long after. "You know… as rough as this forest is, it is kinda pretty…" my Mii mused.

"Plus, smell all this clean air these trees are making!" Susie agreed, happily taking a deep breath.

"Yeah." My Mii agreed, smiling at Susie. "Clean air is something none of us can never get enough off."

"You'd better thank all these trees then." I chuckled. "They provide it for us, after all."

Susie seemed to take my response literally. "Well then, thank you trees! You keep our air fresh!"

I chuckled a little harder. "Hey, Brave? You okay?" I asked, seeing Brave skipping around and not hearing her speak for at least five minutes.

"Oh! I'm just thinking." she responded.

"'Bout what?" I asked.

"My career, mostly." Brave responded, nervously fiddling with her microphone. "After all, I wanted to be a Pop Star loved by everyone across Miitopia, but… do you think helping you guys could really help me take off?"

"It couldn't hurt." I offered.

Brave gave a somewhat half-hearted smile, then looked back at her mic. "I don't know, I just… I might've acted before I thought about what I could do for my future… I'm nervous about what might actually happen."

"YOU'RE nervous?" I asked, a little more surprised than reasonably should have been.

Brave smirked at me. "Yes, Cameron's look-alike, I can and do get nervous, even though I'm a bouncing ball of energy. Anyway… thanks for talking with me… and letting me join you guys. I really appreciate that."

I was just about to respond to that, when suddenly…

I turned on my heel quickly, staring wildly behind us.

I felt it again. That feeling of being observed.

"Dude, you okay?" my Mii asked, noticing me.

"I SWEAR I feel someone watching us." I mumbled, looking around carefully.

"Like who?" Susie asked, tilting her head.

"I might be wrong… but I have a very distinct feeling it's that Purple Guy character…" I murmured, still scanning the area.

"Hm?" Brave spoke up. "Thin guy with saggy eyes and a knife? Purple hair too?"

"Yeah, that's who… wait, how do you know who he-" I started to ask, turning around.

"I ran into him on the way out. He said that he wished me and the rest of us luck on whatever we were doing, then headed for the dining hall."

I looked back. 'He's… at the dining hall then?' I thought. 'But… I could've sworn…'

"Even if it wasn't him, we should be on our guard. It could be a monster you sensed…" Susie grimly reminded.

Still feeling as though we were being watched, we continued on the way.

Monsters came out of the brush every now and then, but we defeated them all one by one. Yet every victory only made me more on edge, as though we were being watched even closer.

It got to the point where even the other's could start to sense it. "I don't like this…" my Mii murmured, nervously holding his frying pan. He couldn't stand still when he was nervous, just like me.

Susie kept making small glances side to side, trying to find anything that stood out. She seemed to be muttering some sort of prayer for safety, and it appeared like tiny runes were flying off her while she did so.

As for Brave, she settled her nerves on being even MORE dramatic in her speech. I learned that when she started to push some branches out the way, and one came back so fast it slapped me right in the face. Brave kept insistently apologizing for a good ten minutes after, while also insistently brushing me off and constantly straightening my shirt for me.

As for me, I swear I heard noises behind us every thirty seconds, and each one sounded a touch closer than the last.

Late afternoon finally rolled around a long time later. My nerves were slowly lessening. "Maybe we were paranoid about nothing…" I mused hopefully.

That thought was dashed quickly.

A very loud rustling came from in front of us, just out of sight.

And it sounded like it was coming closer to us.

The sound made my friends quickly draw their weapons and stare wildly in front of us. I held my breath as the sound slowly got closer, closer, and…

A mouse jumped out the bushes.

If that had been the end of the story, that would've been just plain embarrassing. But no, this mouse easily almost the same size as my Mii friends.

And then I noticed that it had no face.

"Wha… where's… the face?" I whispered, watching the mouse.

It hopped around on its little feet, its tail bouncing with it. The tail was long, and at the end it was ball shaped. It looked rather heavy for a tail.

Then, I was nearly blinded by a bright flash of light.

It disappeared as quickly as it came, but from the sky floated down a ball of light.

It had that one girl's face, Lucoa, from Greenhorne. You know, the Lovey-Dovey woman?

"Aiiieee-!" the face screamed, looking scared, and for good reason.

The face slowly started spiraling towards the faceless mouse. Two of those Smileshrooms also jumped out from the shrubbery, standing next to the mouse.

"It's a battle! Come on!" I yelled, gesturing for everyone to get ready.

My Mii sighed gently, as though the mouse was a major annoyance. Susie nodded with a smile, raising her stick. Brave did a small hype-up dance, making small cheers to herself and tossing her mic into the air to catch

Quickly, the face latched onto the monster. For whatever reason, I wondered what would happen if Mick Foley saw Lucoa now.

That thought quickly was forgotten when the mouse hopped forward and did a forward somersault, its tail whipping around over itself and then slamming down HARD into Susie. She nearly fell down with JUST the one hit.

"Oh dear." I squeaked, seeing the mouse do the same thing to my Mii. "We might not be strong enough for this one yet…"

Susie, the fastest of our group, did the smart move and healed herself up with Cure. My Mii followed up with a Flambé to one of the Smileshrooms, as per my direction.

Brave moved next, and it seemed like she was about to try something different. She pointed her mic at the monsters, as my 3DS started making noises. 'New Skill! Earworm!'

"This one goes out to you!" she cheered, before she started dancing in front of the monsters while singing a REALLY catchy tune.

By the time she let up, both of the Smileshrooms were dancing in place to themselves, not a care in the world. The mouse, not so much.

Brave grinned at me as she returned to her original position. "I've given us a chance to get rid of the dancing 'shrooms." she explained.

"I like that!" I grinned, seeing both of the plant monsters lose their turn to the really catch tune. Hell, I was about start dancing myself. I swear I could hear a very similar tune right now…

Then I realized that was my 3DS through my headphones. This whole time, it had been playing music for me, and I never even knew.

 **(If you wanna listen along, I'm gonna start marking certain parts of the game with music from the game, if you'd like.)**

 _= Background Music: Boss Battle 1 =_

Anyway, the Lucoa Mouse charged forward and slammed its tail into my Mii this time, doing damage, but not as much as it had for Susie. It jumped over to Brave too, but as she tried to dodge it…

The mouse instead spun in a large circle, it's tail following along. Brave had tried to jump to the side rather than back, so she still got hit HARD. To make matters worse, the attack also managed to hit Susie, though for not as much.

"What?! AoE damage?! That's a fat load of-" I started to swear.

Then a Smileshroom interrupted me and showed Susie it's funny face.

In moments, she was laughing so hard, she could barely stand. "Y-you… you were RIGHT, Cameron's look-alike!" she managed. "That IS funny! HAHAHAHA!"

I was panicking. Me laughing was one thing, I couldn't do anything. But one of our healers? How were we supposed to calm her down enough to fight again?

Then, my Guardian stepped in.

" _Oh dear. Now that's a problem. If a Mii has a status effect, they can't do much until it wears off… which could be a while. Luckily for you, I have a solution to that. Behold!"_

I glanced behind us. A small circle was suddenly there, gently glowing with a soft blue light. " _This is the Safe Spot. I created it so that every time you battle, you'd have it behind you and your team. Simply put a Mii in that area for a rest, and they'll shake off status effect far faster than normal! Not to mention, it heals them a small bit! Though, you must understand, while they are back there… you'll be down a fighter until you take them out."_

"That would've been useful to have when I was in a laughing fit…" I murmured.

The Guardian chose not to reply, probably because we had more than enough to deal with right now than getting pettily angry over minor details.

I quickly helped Susie get back over to the Safe Spot and helped her sit down safely. She gently rubbed her eyes and, still laughing, managed to say, "O-okay, Cameron's look-alike. I-Ha ha!-I'll stay here for now…"

"Just relax for a little bit. You'll be fine." I insisted, returning to the other two.

Without my knowledge, Brave and my Mii managed to defeat the two Smileshrooms while I was kept busy, leaving just the mouse. It tried again to whip its tail around, but thanks to the very obvious space between my Mii and Brave, it couldn't them both. It settled on just slamming into Brave on its next turn.

"We're getting beaten here!" my Mii insisted, bruises everywhere on his body, not to mention a fair limp in his leg. A large cut was also visible on his cheek.

"I don't feel so good…" Brave moaned, holding a cut on her side and bruises just as visible on her own body. "I'm… I'm dizzy…"

"Hang on!" I insisted, quickly grabbing my HP shaker bottle. Half of the stuff went to my Mii, while the other half went to Brave.

My Mii's limp went away and the cut on his cheek healed itself, and Brave was able to stop holding her side. Some, but not all, of their bruises healed up too, leaving them looking much better than they did just moments ago.

Despite being freshly healed, my Mii still looked upset. "We don't have enough power to beat this thing yet… and I just ran out of MP to do more skills."

I was about to pull out my MP shaker, when suddenly…

'First Energetic Quirk!' my 3DS beeped, and then, 'Cheer.'

Brave quickly jumped over to my Mii and started dancing and chanting, "C'mon, Cameron! We got this! Don't give up NOW!"

My Mii seemed to get his mojo back. "You… you're right. I can do this!"

And just like that, a little bit of his MP was restored. Not a lot, but a fair amount.

I glanced back over at Susie while my Mii aimed another Flambé at the mouse. She still seemed laughy, but her HP and MP were in fact getting restored.

Then she seemed to stop laughing, took a deep breath, and then stood up, good as new. "I'm okay!" she cheered.

"Perfect!" I laughed, signaling for her to come back over here. "We're doing… you know, okay."

That sentence came out at just the worst time possible, because just then the mouse spent its second turn whipping its tail around, with the center being at Susie. ALL THREE of my friends got hit with the tail, leaving them all on the ground barely standing up.

"Ow…" all three of them breathed at the same time.

I was starting to panic. "Oh no… we can't go down like this…!"

Susie did her best to patch up my Mii, leading to him cooking up food for Brave in return. Brave did as best as she could, but she couldn't take on that thing alone.

The mouse, low on HP but still going at it, continued it's brutal assault, pretty much reversing the healing effects of last turn.

I shook my head, sweating heavily. "At this rate, it's gonna wear us down completely…" I murmured nervously.

My Mii and Susie quickly healed themselves, leaving Brave to scarf her HP Banana down quickly. The mouse slapped each of them with its tail once again…

Then, out of nowhere…

The mouse glared at me.

I paled as it ran forward at me.

I tried to backup, but it came at me too fast and jumped up.

The tail moved for me in slow motion.

All I could do was cross my arms in front of my face and pray.

My friends yelled at me, each one with identical faces of fear.

And then…

 _FffpfffpfffpfffpFFFPFFFPFFFPFF-_

And then something slammed into the mouse with the speed of a arrow shot from a bow.

The mouse fell over, stunned. For good reason too. I was nearly stunned still myself.

Then I saw the object that had come flying out of nowhere to save me.

A dagger.

And it was returning to the outstretched hand of Purple Guy.

"Alright kid, I'll admit it. You were right. I AM curious about you and your ragtag group here." he stated, casually cleaning off the blade with a rag. "I've never really seen someone like you before, and when I saw that you were parading around with a few other Mii's, I got real curious-like. So I decided to snoop on ya a little."

I didn't say anything, but Purple Guy must've read my mind. "Yeah, yeah, all that about following ya, blah blah. It wasn't really much of following, as it was… I just happened to be going in the same direction as you, so I decided to see what you were about. And I must say… you're all are much stronger than ya let on."

The mouse finally managed to stand back up, but it looked dizzy, if the swirls that were in the place of Lucoa's eyes were any indication.

"S-so… you… were lying to save face?" I summed up.

"More or less, kid." Purple Guy agreed. "When you get to be my age, you kinda learn to be wary of others. Especially after all I've seen."

Something about his voice and his somewhat frantic eyes made me believe him.

"So, I guess what I'm asking here is… you got room for one more on your happy train?" Purple Guy asked, crossing his arms in a very relaxed fashion.

The mouse apparently thought he was. After finally regaining it's bearings and glaring at Purple Guy, it charged at him and tried to swing its tail.

That's when my 3DS beeped. 'First Cool Quirk!' and 'Dodge.'

Faster than I could reasonably see, Purple Guy dodged out of the way of the tail, muttering a cocky, "Too slow." under his breath.

The mouse looked stunned, before trying again, but Purple Guy managed to dodge twice, now standing next to Brave. "I'll take your silence as a yes, then?"

I looked at my friends. They were… obviously confused, but my Mii seemed to shrug. "If you want him to… I won't judge you, bud."

I took a deep breath. "Well, seeing as how you just saved my hide a moment ago… to hell with it, why not?"

Purple Guy seemed to grin a little broader. "You aren't gonna regret that choice, kid. I promise you that."

 _Purple Guy joined the party!_

The mouse clearly knew that things weren't going it's way at this point, because now it seemed far more jittery than normal, and Lucoa's face was now one of partial nervousness.

Susie restored my Mii's health, and I had my Mii did the same to Brave, seeing as she didn't have anything to restore herself with. Brave quickly threw her mic at the mouse.

Purple Guy casually twirled his dagger in his hand while they moved, then on his turn he ducked down and threw it almost like you'd throw a boomerang.

It whirled around in a wide arc, just like Brave did with her mic, only his weapon seemed a LOT more aerodynamic. It slammed into the Lucoa Mouse and then easily returned to Purple Guy's hand.

"How on Earth do you people DO that?!" I asked.

Purple Guy cracked a smile. "Practice makes perfect, kid."

The mouse jumped forward and slammed it's tail into my Mii twice in one last desperate attempt, but it was too little too late. Susie quickly healed my Mii, and after one Flambé, a toss from Brave and a slice from Purple Guy, it proved to be too much for the mouse.

It fell over, and I prepared myself. Once again, the whirling data lines of code came from the 3DS aimed at the mouse, and a HUGE force was acted upon me, pulling me towards the mouse faster than it was getting pulled towards me.

My friends, minus Purple Guy (he was staring at this in mild shock, which to be honest wasn't that much of a surprise), quickly grabbed my back and tugged with me, mostly stopping my movement towards the mouse. It VERY slowly got tugged towards me, into the data lines, and then, with a sharp POP!, it was back in the system.

The face soon flew out from the system, uttering a happy thanks in response. It flew off, and then we fell over.

I panted, wiping my brow. Between the natural heat of the forest, the tense battle, and the struggle of forcing the mouse back into the system, I was sweating like crazy, not to mention pretty winded.

"What just happened?" Purple Guy asked, leaning over me.

"What happens when we defeat an enemy." I explained softly, hearing two more small pops as money and food were released from my system.

Slowly we pulled ourselves up and dusted off. I picked up the money and the food, this time around two plates of tasty-looking mushrooms plus a plate of rather appealing cheese.

"So…" I murmured, gazing at Purple Guy. "I guess you're part of our group, now."

Purple Guy nodded. "Not exactly how I saw my day going, but I don't see anything but good coming from this… unless you all have any objections?"

He looked at each of the rest of us one by one. No one said anything.

If I had to guess, the others were just as curious about Purple Guy as I was, and that probably went vice versa with him too. We simply didn't know a whole lot about each other. I figured we'd get to know each other with time, but… I dunno, it just seemed kind of uncomfortable as of now.

Finally, my Mii cleared his throat and stated, "We should probably get moving. Our fight might have attracted other monsters in the area."

The rest of us agreed with that, and we soldered on further.

From that point on, I could've sworn the trees were starting to grow thinner, like we were reaching the other end of the forest. And it seemed like that was actually going to happen.

Suddenly, I realized that the others were walking ahead. Purple Guy was near me, cautiously looking at me through the corners of his eyes.

"Kid? Lemme ask you something." he stated once I glanced over. "What… what exactly are you? It's been on my mind ever since I met you back at the first Inn, and I haven't be able to put a name to it."

"I'm human." I stated simply.

"You make it sound like you're some sort of different race." Purple Guy noted.

"Well… in a sense, I am." I explained quietly. "I mean… well, it's a long story."

"Then wait. I'll listen to what you have to say when we get to an Inn." Purple Guy interrupted.

I nodded, understanding his reasoning. We were in the middle of essentially nowhere with no guarantee of safety. Starting the story now, when we could easily be beset by something of unfriendly nature…

I quickly sped up my pace to get to my Mii and the others, saying, "You guys see anything yet?"

"No… and it's only getting darker here." my Mii mumbled, looking at the sky through the now far thinner trees around us.

"Calm down." Purple Guy insisted, now walking with the rest of us. "We'll find something. The Inn's aren't that far apart from each other. We're sure to run into one sooner than later."

"What makes you say that?" Susie asked.

"Because there's one right in front of us." Purple Guy calmly stated.

We looked ahead. It was faint, yes, but… there seemed to be a sliver of a sign up ahead, and it looked very much like the big INN sign on all Inn's.

Everyone picked up the pace a little bit more, and sure enough, there it was. Right at the forest's edge, an Inn was placed here.

"How'd… how'd you know this would be here?" Brave asked.

"Because I've done a little, granted only a LITTLE, adventuring myself." Purple Guy responded casually. "I've got a map here of pretty much every Inn from Greenhorne to the castle. Beyond that, though… I got nothing for ya."

Susie whistled in amazement. "That's… actually pretty useful."

We all entered the Inn in a few moments.

Once Purple Guy got our rooms together, he herded us all into one room for a moment.

"Okay, I know everyone's tired…" he started, somehow snapping his 'fingers' (no Mii really has those, hey?) at my Mii, who was about to fall asleep just from sitting on a bed. "But I have some questions that I want answered before we go to bed."

Brave curiously sat on the edge of the other bed, her head tilted. "What questions?"

"For starters, what exactly are you four intending to do?" Purple Guy asked.

"We're tasked with stopping the Dark Lord from destroying Miitopia." I answered simply.

Apparently Purple Guy didn't expect that, if the way his eyes widened was any indication. "Woahwoahwoah, hold on… YOU four are the group I've heard of trying to save Greenhorne and then eventually Miitopia from the Dark Lord?"

"How did people even start talking about that?" I asked. "I thought the only people that would've known we were trying to stop the Dark Lord would MAYBE be the people of Greenhorne, but both you AND Brave had made a mention of other people knowing about us trying to stop the Dark Lord."

"Word travels really fast in Miitopia." Brave explained. "I mean, think about it. I had four other friends I hang out with before becoming a Pop Star and meeting you guys. If each of them knew four people, and then each of THEM knew four others, then you could spider web outwards to pretty much EVERY Mii in Miitopia, everyone connected through just one person. And we Mii's love talking with each other about the latest gossip, so it wouldn't take long for some Mii to tell their friend about our group, them to pass that on to others, ectera ectera."

I digested that. It made sense, sort of. I still had no idea how these Mii's could pass word of us that quickly.

"Anyway, yes, we are." My Mii added. "We were commissioned to save the world after seeing the horrors that Dark Lord Chara plans to unleash on us all."

"Commissioned?" Purple Guy noticed. "Someone told you to go fight the Dark Lord?"

My Mii paled. He looked at me, silently asking, 'What do I say?'

I gave him a look that said, 'I got this,' before calmly sighing and saying…

"We were commissioned by the Guardian to do so."

That REALLY got Purple Guy's attention. "The… The GUARDIAN? The being that watches over all Mii-kind? You're kidding me. There's no way you could've met them. They… they watch over EVERYONE. They wouldn't have time to focus on just one group of people…"

" _Why are you so sure about that, Mr. Afton?"_ the pendant around my neck suddenly glowed.

Purple Guy froze dead in place, his face quickly turning to the color of milk.

"Afton…?" I murmured.

" _That would be your new friend's real last name. I don't understand why he prefers Purple Guy, exactly. But in any case, why do you doubt my involvement in this group, Afton?"_ the Guardian explained.

Purple Guy quickly bowed to his knees, his hands in a pray position. "F-forgive me, great Guardian. I-I just thought you would have enough on your plate already…"

" _Mistakes are mistakes, Afton. Do not dwell on them for long, or they may consume you one day."_ the Guardian told him, before speaking once more. " _In any event, I was about to speak to you all. You now have a full team! I can't be more happy for you and your group."_

My Mii rubbed his neck. "Well, I'm just glad we have each other now."

The others agreed.

" _The next step in your path ahead would be to find the remaining faces of Greenhorne. But I have news. Dark Lord Chara has been spotted. They were last seen in the rocky plateau to the north of your location."_ the Guardian quickly explained.

My eyes widened. "He might have put someone's face there, or maybe he's hiding there, waiting for us."

" _I have no idea if he is actually there or not anymore. In any event, going there would possibly be a good course of action if you want to stop them. You DO want to stop them, do you?"_

"Yes, we do." Susie agreed, grimacing slightly.

"I wanna get him!" Brave yelled, somehow looking pretty angry for someone who was wearing a frilly dress. "He's hurt too many people to be let off lightly!"

"I'm in this far, I'm not leaving till the end." my Mii responded, unusually confident-sounding.

Purple Guy slowly managed to collect himself. "I said I was going to help. I'm not going to back on that. That would be foolish of me."

"I'm not backing down either." I added at the end. "Maybe this isn't my world, but I'm not gonna let that stand in my way of helping."

" _Excellent! I'm very glad to hear you all say that."_ the Guardian praised, sounding deeply pleased. " _You all should rest tonight. You've had a long adventure."_

The others slowly nodded. Everyone started doing their own thing for a moment. My Mii and Susie started having a quiet conversation together, while Purple Guy leaned against the wall in the corner, carefully inspecting his dagger for any sort of damage or blemish.

That left Brave, who looked as though she had become a LITTLE too enthusiastic in her statement to help, and now didn't know what to do with her leftover energy.

"You okay?" I asked quietly.

"Oh! Y-yeah, I'm fine." she stammered, blushing a little. "Just… a little high-strung right now."

"Here. Maybe some food will help?" I asked, reaching into my bag and pulling out some Butterfly Honey.

"Oooh! Thank you!" Brave thanked, quickly starting to eat the treat.

"Hey, kid?" Purple Guy asked, suddenly behind me. "You got more food in there?"

"I'm hungry too, what do you got?" My Mii quickly called out.

"Is it time for a late-night snack?" Susie asked hopefully.

I sighed. 'Brought this on myself.' I chastised myself in my head.

I quickly started handing out some food for the others. Purple Guy tried some of those mushrooms we got from the Smileshrooms, the Mushroom Sauté. He seemed to like it a lot, despite his best efforts to hide his expression.

My Mii settled on the cheese platter, called Mouse Treat, which was essentially two pieces of rather tasty-looking cheese on a small platter. He thought it was okay. "Could use something, though." he added through a small bite of the stuff.

Susie eventually settled on more Goblin Ham. "I'm still surprised I like this stuff…" she murmured. I shrugged.

Anywho, once everyone finished their food they started wandering about, about to head into bed.

I crawled into my little rollout bed, which was a lot more comfy than you'd expect, and started to do my nightly routine of checking everything.

However, just as I plugged my 3DS in and was about do the same to my phone…

It buzzed.

My eyes widened. "Wh-wha…?"

I turned on the screen. I… I had a text message!

I quickly opened up the phone and read the message. It was from… some number. I didn't recognize it.

" _Cameron… where are you? I'm all alone."_

I texted back, just trying to see if it was someone I knew, " _Who's this?"_

" _Please, Cameron… find me…"_ the next message read.

" _Who are you?"_ I responded, then added, " _I can't help you if you won't tell me who you are."_

" _But you already know me. You should, anyway…"_

" _Sorry, but I don't have anything. Your number isn't familiar to me."_

" _Whatever… just please…"_

" _H"_

" _E"_

" _L"_

" _P"_

" _M"_

" _E"_

" _C"_

" _A"_

" _M"_

" _E"_

" _R"_

" _O"_

" _N"_

That last bit came in with one letter being sent every two seconds.

" _Just tell me who you are so I know who to look for."_ I insisted.

No response.

" _Hello? Mystery person?"_

Nothing.

" _Okay then, well… I'll certainly keep an eye out for you. Good night."_

I turned off the phone and then carefully plugged it up.

"What were you doing?" my Mii suddenly asked, standing next to me.

I jumped up a little. Without my knowledge, my Mii had been standing next to me for a good five seconds.

"Oh… erm, you see, I got this text message from someone, and it was kinda creepy." I explained, pulling up the text menu again. "They claim to know me, but…"

My Mii stared at the screen for a moment. "I… don't know what I'm supposed to be looking at."

"You look at the conver-" I started to say, looking at the phone myself.

There was nothing there. No sign of the messenger, no sign of my own messages back.

"-sation." I finished quietly, quickly scouring my phone to try and see if I clicked off of it somehow. I didn't. It was still the same number. But… the conversation was just gone.

"Are you sure you're okay?" my Mii asked, genuinely concerned. "You seem… a little pale now…"

"I swear there was a message here…" I insisted. "It said something like, 'you know who I am,' 'I'm all alone,' and 'help me Cameron.'"

"I… I have no idea." my Mii responded. "Maybe you just imagined it…?"

"I can't imagine something that vividly…" I responded quietly. "I seriously saw that. I know I did."

"Hey, don't stress about that." my Mii instructed. "It won't do you any good to dwell on things you can't change, you know?"

I slowly sighed. "I guess you're right… you heading to bed soon?"

"Yeah… actually, small issue… I think Brave and Purple Guy have kinda claimed the beds in these rooms already." my Mii murmured.

I looked at the beds. Indeed, it seemed as though Purple Guy and Brave had already picked out their beds, with Purple Guy reading and Brave jumping on the bed happily, trying to burn up a little bit more energy.

"That's fine. After all, the rollout is here, and I'm tired…" I whispered, a yawn escaping me.

My Mii shrugged. "Alright. See you tomorrow, then." my Mii stated, leaving the room with a wink at me.

I made sure everything was put away neatly before taking off my glasses and closing my eyes.

The lights soon were turned off in the room, and we all quickly fell into a deep sleep.

For me, however, I had more dreams. Dreams that made even less sense.

The few I remember are of our group heading into a cave of some kind…

...a giant rock falling from the sky…

...the Dark Lord laughing at me from above, with me forcibly on my knees before him…

...my Mii and Susie yelling at each other, angry…

None of these dreams made any sense to me.

Most of them were nightmares, but a few were good dreams too…

My Mii and Susie hugging it out…

Purple Guy dodging a massive strike…

Brave sining a really beautiful song in front of a huge crowd…

Just to name a few.

These dreams helped balance out the bad dreams.

The final dream I had was the strangest, one I'm not entirely sure if I would call good or bad.

It was a dark area. So dark, I couldn't see anything in front of me.

Suddenly, a voice called out.

"Where… where am I?"

It sounded like it was directly in front of me.

"I… I'm so lost…"

The voice sounded almost… familiar.

"Can… can you hear me?" the voice asked. With a start, I suddenly realized it was talking to me.

"I… I can't see you… but I know you're there. You have to be…" the voice responded. "Cameron? Can you hear me?"

I tried to speak, but I couldn't.

"I… I don't know where I am." the voice murmured. "But… you have to find me. I can't stay here forever… it's so hot here. I'm burning up just being here… please, Cameron, promise you'll find me…"

I tried, again, to speak, but I couldn't. My voice was completely silent.

"... I think I'll take that as a yes, then." the voice responded. "Please, Cameron, you have to find me… PLEASE!"

And then the dream ended.

* * *

I slowly opened my eyes. Morning sunlight was streaming through the window.

Purple Guy and Brave were already up and about. I slowly sat up as Brave turned towards me. "Oh! Cameron's look-alike! I'm sorry, did we wake you?"

"Nah… I'm fine…" I murmured. "Just woke up."

"I was just about to partake in one of my daily routines to wake myself up." Purple Guy explained. "Some morning stretches, you know. The basics."

I yawned. "I could use a little more of a wake up call…" I murmured.

"Well then join us!" Brave inisted. "This'll be fun!"

I got up with them.

"Alright you two, let's hone our bodies into ultimate weapons!" Purple Guy started.

"It might hurt now, but future us will be glad!" Brave added.

"TRAINING TIME!" they yelled, and then, they both quickly dropped to the floor and started doing sit-ups.

I joined in with them as best I could. Sit-ups were about the only exercise I didn't completely suck at. We kept it up for a good five minutes, with Brave at one point yelling happily, "We're so in sync!"

That seemed to make her and Purple Guy go even FASTER, which I attempted to keep up with, to no avail.

Finally, after what felt like years, they finally called it off.

I was panting. My muscles felt like they were burning, and don't even get me started on how much sweat was pouring off me.

"That, lady and gent, is how I get my morning exercise." Purple Guy explained, not even a LITTLE bit tired or worn out. Rather, he looked well and ready to go.

"That was fun!" Brave smiled, also raring to go. "What about you, Cameron's look-alike?"

They suddenly seemed to notice just how much that had taken from me to attempt to keep up. "I… I think I need… a shower…"

They helped me up and got me to the bathrooms, where I took a long, LONG shower.

If that was just the START of the day…

What would the rest of it hold?

* * *

 **And another chapter wraps up!**

 **Okay, yeah, I've started to slow down on this story too, but cut me a LITTLE slack, okay? I've been up to my armpits in things I have to do for not only school, but I'm also preparing for college, not to MENTION that I have my own personal life too. I can't just type on this thing 24/7.**

 **In the meantime, however, there's plenty of other stories out there about Miitopia that are probably much better than this one. Not to mention they probably update a LOT more frequently than I ever could. Like, EmberTheDraconian's story, A Tale of Chaos? That story is great. It also has a great person writing it, so yeah. Give it a read. =D**

 **Anyway guys, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. I'm still REALLY into this story. I hope you guys are, at the very least, mildly into it.**

 **If you guys have any questions for me, PM me and I'll do my best to answer. Oh, and please let me know if you guys have any particular side character you'd like to be. I'd be more than happy to include you! Beats just coming up with random names and references, after all.**

 **Until next guys, I have just one thing to say…**

 **Stay awesome! =D**


	5. Rocks, Rocks, and More Rocks

**Hello dear readers. It has certainly been a fair bit of time, hasn't it?**

 **I suppose it's better late than never, though. Plus, I'm still really liking this story myself.**

 **So, without further ado, let's just jump right into it!**

* * *

Chapter 5: Rocks, Rocks, and More Rocks

 _=Music: Map: Greenhorne=_

So… after all that, a quick shower, some breakfast, gearing up and then some traveling, we arrived back at Greenhorne.

Apparently the Mii's who had their faces stolen didn't actually get them back until we came up to them. Then the face flew down from the sky, floated a bit, and then stuck back onto the recipients face.

Carefree Guide Bob Ross thanked us for the service we did him and gave us a large sack of money, which we accepted gratefully. Meanwhile, Mick Foley was absolutely ecstatic that Lucoa's face was now back on. The two of them PROFUSELY thanked out group for saving her face, giving me something strange.

Three tickets, blue in color with red detailing and what looked like red sunglasses on the left side.

"Those are Game Tickets." Lucoa explained to me. "If you ever have the urge, you can spend those at the arcade in pretty much any Inn for a chance to win things. You guys deserve them far more than I do."

However, things weren't anywhere close to being done. Whilst there, I noticed a small equipment shop, to which I herded everyone inside. After a good twenty minutes of haggling, everyone walked out in much different get-ups than they had been in previously.

My Mii now wore a chef's uniform covered in what looked like it was made out of newspaper, for some reason. He also had a new frying pan, one shaped like a doughnut for some reason. I have no idea if it was any good at being used for cooking, especially with that hole on the middle of the thing, but if my Mii was happy with it for now, that was enough for me.

Susie now wore robes, or as she called them, 'vestments', that were made out of rather sturdy wicker, with a green stripe of some fabric or another wrapping around the rim of the hat, the cuffs of the sleeves, and the bottom. Her weapon was upgraded from a stick to an actual staff, with a silver crystal on the top of it, but I think she still liked the stick. To be honest, it kinda suited her better, in my opinion.

Brave had a rather cute outfit that was, for the most part, lime green in color but also with white polka-dots covering it from top to bottom, and her microphone was now a little bit bigger, pink in color, and with a cute ribbon attached to it. She seemed happy with it, as she said that her voice sounded almost three times better on that mic than her first one ever sounded.

Purple Guy managed to fit in an upgrade of his own equipment too, his outfit now appearing far more outdoorsy than his last, with a woolen cap and a rather comfy-looking jacket. The only problem was that the shop didn't sell it in the color purple, so he reluctantly had to wear one that was black in color. "Hey, black looks good on just about anybody." I offered as he reluctantly bought the clothes.

He also managed to grab a new dagger, this one even bigger than his old one. You'd think with a name like Chef's Dagger it'd be reserved for only people like my Mii or something, but my Mii said he felt far more comfy holding the frying pan.

As for me? The shop didn't have much in the way of protection for me, but I did manage to buy a few more clothes (considering I had been wearing the same outfit for at least three days now), and on top of that, a small wooden shield for my own defense. I almost didn't buy it, but my Mii convinced me that I was just as important to grab equipment for. "Besides, it's not that expensive." he added.

"Yeah, but we don't have much money left…" I murmured, wincing at just how much money we actually had spent that day. A conservative estimate is that we spent well over one thousand and two-hundred gold in JUST that one trip on everyone's things. If we were spending that much NOW, how much would everything else cost down the road?

Anyway, once we finally got our things together we continued along the path. Our goal was clear: the Dark Lord had been spotted north of the forest, and we needed to see if he was still there or not.

It took a while, even with my time-space warping 3DS covering a large part of the distance, but eventually we made it to what was supposed to be the area the Dark Lord was last seen at.

The area was littered with far more rocks than the plains usually had. It was seriously like a little maze in here, with literal piles of rocks creating walls and mountains around us.

Brave took a stab in the dark. "Hello?" she called out. "Anyone here?"

No response. Either that meant the Dark Lord was here and was hiding, or he wasn't here. Otherwise we would've heard him warp away.

"I don't see anything… but we should still be careful." my Mii murmured.

We cautiously wandered in, wary for any sign of something unfriendly hiding out amongst the rocks.

Suddenly, just as we rounded a corner, a monster slowly floated in. I mean that literally, as the monster in question was a cloud. It almost seemed to have hands as well, seeing as two smaller clouds were nearby the pair of eyes stuck to it.

It didn't notice us at first. It seemed content to simply float there, minding its own business.

"We should surprise it." I murmured, motioning for the others to be quiet. "Get some good damage quickly.

Purple Guy grinned. "Leave that to me. I'll provide distraction. You all do the rest."

Faster than I could completely follow, Purple Guy dashed away at a crouch, around the other side of the rock.

For a moment, the cloud continued to mind itself.

That was until the dagger came from nowhere.

It slammed into the cloud, apparently doing damage despite being… you know… A CLOUD.

It looked around angrily, trying to find the problem, when Purple Guy dashed out in front of the thing, looking smug.

"Looking for me?" he asked, posing with his dagger.

The cloud started floating towards him, but it never seemed to expect our ambush from behind.

Susie slapped the creature with her staff, my Mii slammed into the cloud with his frying pan, and Brave tossed her mic quickly.

This combined damage quickly grew too much for the enemy, and it was swiftly defeated by surprise.

My friend started celebrating, but that might've been a little too quick.

I noticed something float in behind Purple Guy, and it didn't look happy.

"Purple Guy! Hit the deck!" I called out.

Purple Guy looked behind him in mistake. Something hit him in the face with enough force to knock him back a fair bit.

Another cloud monster, by the looks of it. A pair of Rock Moth's also flew in, quickly grouping up with the cloud.

"Either this was a trap, or a VERY inconvenient coincidence…" I murmured.

 _=Music: Battle: Greenhorne=_

The cloud, which my 3DS identified at a Cumulus, quickly blew forward and slammed into Purple Guy again, though now he was ready for it.

Susie charged forward, and Purple Guy followed up with a toss of his knife. The other two quickly attacked as well, with Brave finishing off one of the Moths.

Then the cloud moved. But rather than attack someone, it instead… started to rain a little as it floated above the remaining Rock Moth.

That rain seemed to somehow HEAL that damn moth, if the happy eyes that the moth now had indicated anything.

"I always HATE it when monsters can heal themselves or others!" I complain loudly. "And how does RAIN heal a monster?!"

"It's Miitopia, bro." my Mii responded casually, twirling his pan around lazily.

I sighed defeatedly, getting my Mii to attack the recently healed Moth, defeating it. Thank the Guardian that it only healed a very small bit of damage.

Other than that little quirk, nothing else of major interest happened. The fight was quickly won, I absorbed the monsters into the system again, and we continued on our way.

 _=Music: Map: Greenhorne=_

The rocks slowly grew more and more numerous around us. The terrain slowly grew a little more and more uneven, making it harder to walk. Add in that monsters attacked us every now and again, and our trip wasn't exactly easy.

"Ooof! Wahh!" Brave suddenly called out, tripping over a particularly large step.

Purple Guy moved quickly for her. "...you alright?" he asked, hand out.

Brave quickly hopped up, taking Purple Guy's hand for a moment to support herself. "Oh yeah, I'm fine! Thanks though." she thanked.

My 3DS suddenly made a sound effect. Startled, I looked at the screen. It had images of Purple Guy and Brave, and a large, almost empty heart between the two. The heart slowly filled a small bit.

'Is this… a friendship meter?' I thought to myself.

As we walked, I started looking through the menu the system had on it. I was able to take an assessment of my party (HP, MP, current held items), but the thing I was most interested in was the top of the screen.

It had pictures of my four friends, with lines connecting some of them. In the center of these lines, a heart was present, with part of it being empty.

In particular, my Mii and Susie seemed to have a complete heart and a uncomplete one, with the complete one having a large number 2 right in the center.

"Huh." I murmured quietly. "That's… interesting."

"What is?" Brave asked, suddenly right next to me.

I jumped a little. "How long have you been there?"

"Nevermind that. Whatcha looking at?" Brave asked.

I showed her the screen. "Oooh… what do we have here?"

"Far as I can figure… it might be a measure of how close two people are to one another. Like, look at you and Purple Guy…" I intoned.

The line between their faces had a heart that was about halfway full. "I guess… the more we all bond, the easier life will become?"

"Sounds logical enough to me." Brave agreed, smiling.

"I'm curious about what this number means though…" I mumbled, pointing at the connection between my Mii and Susie. "Like, there has to be more benefits to friendship, right?"

"You mean, besides just simply getting along better?" Brave asked.

"Exactly." I agreed.

Brave was about to say something, but then my Mii called out that he found something.

I got over to him as quickly as I could without twisting an ankle. "What do you see?" I asked.

"I swear I saw movement just up ahead…" my Mii explained.

"Did it look like the Dark Lord?" Brave asked.

"No… but there's something in this clearing…" my Mii murmured.

I looked around. The area was indeed a clearing, a nice rest-bit in this land of rocks. A few rocks made small formations here and there, but other than that the area was practically deserted.

Which wasn't a good sign to me. Something must be here.

"Let's fan out a bit. Search around for any signs of Chara." I instructed.

The others agreed with me, and so our search began. Purple Guy started climbing up the rock formations with surprising ease, searching for any signs with the higher viewpoint. Brave started skipping around the perimeter of the entire area, looking for clues there. Susie slowly walked around, making her way through while holding up her staff just in case.

As for my Mii?

"I have a better idea for what I should do." he suddenly said, doing some small gathering.

I watched as he quickly build what looked like a small barbecue stove, complete with a rotisserie, over a growing fire. "I'll provide lunch. Once we've searched the area, I should have a few pick-me-ups ready."

I chuckled. "Leave it to myself to find any way out of whatever he doesn't want to do."

My Mii looked caught red-handed. "Err… quiet. I need to focus on the food…"

He quickly started throwing food that appeared on his pan onto the grill, which quickly started to sizzle.

I left him to it. Even if my Mii was kinda lazy, trying to talk to him while he was cooking wasn't the best of ideas. Chef's are like that, I guess.

I slowly scoured the area, looking for any sign of a monster. Nothing came up. Everyone searched and searched and searched, but we all came up with blanks.

By the time we were sure there was nothing here, the sun was well over us, starting to head for the other horizon. We were all bushed. The terrain was rough and rigid, and I swear I almost tripped on the exact same rock at least three times.

Fortunately, my Mii had finished making food. "Here. I got food ready for all of us." he happily explained, handing each of us a plate of grilled items.

 _=Music: A Cozy Campfire=_

Everyone ate with gusto. "Ahhh…" Brave sighed with her mouth full. "Dha's ta tuff…"

"This is so good!" Susie complimented, having swallowed a large bite.

My Mii blushed gently. "Awww, you guys are just buttering me up…"

"No way, dude. This is really good." I denied. "I wish I could cook this good."

That only served to make my Mii a little more embarrassed. Purple Guy didn't say anything, but he seemed happy with the food too, given how he ate it pretty quickly.

I reached back towards the grill to take seconds, when all of a sudden…

 _=Music Fades Away=_

"Does anyone else feel… something shaking?" I asked nervously.

My friends paused.

It was faint, but I swear I could feel the ground shaking very slightly.

Slowly, it grew more and more.

My friend stood and grabbed their weapons, looking around for any sign of monsters.

Then the shaking stopped.

The area became calm.

I slowly grew hopeful. "Maybe it was nothing-"

That thought lasted for about half a second.

Because as soon as I finished the thought, something crashed into the grill behind us.

Hot food and fire flew EVERYWHERE. A piece hit Brave's bow, causing her to dance in place (no pun intended) while screaming, "FIRE! HOT! HOT! HOT!" Another piece barely missed my head by a hair's width, and I did the smart thing and ducked down.

When the smoke cleared, the thing that destroyed our fire turned out to be… a rock. A massive rock.

It was still. I slowly stood up and gently tapped the thing with the fork my Mii provided. "Did… did someone throw this at us?" I asked quietly.

My friends were a little too preoccupied at the moment to answer me. My Mii was mourning the loss of perfectly good food, Brave was still trying unsuccessfully to pat out the fire, Susie was doing her best to help her, and Purple Guy was dashing around, stamping out the fires that had been scattered all around the place.

Finally, everyone calmed down enough to return to the massive rock. Aside from the small splinter or, in Brave's case, partly singed hairs, none of us had been hurt too badly.

"How did it get up here?" Susie asked, poking the rock with her staff.

"I guess someone or something threw it up here?" I offered, glancing around the other side. "Unless this world has the common problem of rocks falling from the sky?"

There was no sign of anyone down below us. Either they had already left, or they never existed in the first place.

"All the food…" my Mii moaned.

"Calm down. It's just food." I quickly fired.

"All that perfectly good, well-made food…" my Mii continued.

Purple Guy quickly gave my Mii a solid slap across the face. "How 'bout you stop going on about the food for two seconds?"

That seemed to snap my Mii out of it. Rubbing his cheek, he muttered something akin to an apology. I turned back towards the rock…

Only to be met with a floating face.

 _=Music: Prebattle: Imminent Clash_

"GAH!" I shouted, falling backwards on my rump.

With a start, I realized that I just was knocked over by Gastly's stolen face. Remember, the sarcastic guy I didn't like much?

"What now?" the face asked us.

And then it started swirling towards the rock.

I quickly got back up on my feet as my friends redrew their weapons. "Oh, come on! Rocks are monsters too?!"

 _=Music: Battle: Greenhorne=_

The face soon latched on, and the newly made 'Rocky Gastly' was staring at us, the rock now shifting ever so slightly with movement. As if THAT wasn't already enough, two more of those Cumulus cloud monsters floated down next to it, making an already bad problem WORSE.

Purple Guy threw his knife around, and Susie followed up with a slap of her staff, but the only thing that served was to make Rocky Gastly look a little more ticked off.

Of course, just to spite us, both of the Cumulus monsters decided to rain over the rock, almost reversing our damage we had done. And then it was the rock's turn.

It quickly rolled forward, looking directly at Brave. She got hit hard, but the shockwave also slammed into Susie and Purple Guy on either side of her.

"Great. Another enemy with AoE damage…" I muttered darkly, wincing as the rock charged again and hit my Mii, with Susie getting damaged too.

My Mii followed up by slamming his pan into a cloud, effectively defeating it. One down, two to go.

Once my Mii's turn had rolled around again, the second cloud was close to defeat. I told my Mii to use Flambé. He charged up the pan and was just about to charge…

When all of a sudden, my 3DS beeped. I looked down.

'First Assist!' it read, and then, 'Show Off!'

My Mii glanced over at Susie, and seemed to gain a little MORE pep in his movement. A line appeared between the two, and a yellow heart floated over his head.

And then he charged. I knew the moment the pan slammed into the rock that this attack was a bit more powerful than normal.

I started putting the pieces together. "So THAT'S what this stat does…" I realized. "If two Mii's have good chemistry together, they can use stronger attacks!"

Susie seemed a little impressed herself, honestly. Her turn soon came around, and she seemed to prep her staff up, but then SHE glanced at my Mii and gained a little more pep. She quickly slammed her staff into the last cloud, easily defeating it.

"That is really cool." I admitted once Susie returned.

Both my Mii and Susie blushed gently and shyly glanced away.

And then the rock attacked. Without my knowledge, everyone was slowly losing HP, Brave especially considering she had taken the wrath of the fire earlier.

I quickly dashed around with my shakers, healing everyone to the best of my rather limited ability. Once I backed off, my HP shaker was already drained.

Purple Guy seemed ticked off at the rock. "Maybe I should try this for size…" he intoned, digging around in his pockets.

My 3DS beeped. 'New Skill!' and then, 'Booby Trap!'

He laid down two sensors of some sort, which immediately started throwing electricity between each other. "This'll keep me safe." Purple Guy taunted as it slowly turned off for a moment.

"Don't suppose you could extend that to the rest of us?" I asked hopefully.

"Sorry. They don't reach much farther." Purple Guy explained. I guess I could believe that answer.

Anyway, the rock didn't seem like the smartest of monsters, as when was to attack it turned itself towards Purple Guy and started rolling.

But then the sensors reactivated, and the electricity between them quickly hit the rocky being, stopping it in place and making it take damage. "Ha! Knew they'd work."

The rock seemed angry, and then rolled again for Purple Guy. I thought he'd block the blow again with his trap, but this time he got hit with the full force. "Ow… forgot those don't work more than once…"

Susie and my Mii went to work, doing their best to heal everyone when their turn came to pass. Just to be safe, I had Brave retreat for the Safe Zone for a turn, just to keep everyone safe. The moment the rock had its turn, Brave was pulled back into the fray and I prayed that we'd all be okay.

It took another minute or so to finish the fight. That might not sound like a lot, but when the other non-boss fights have only been consistently about thirty seconds long, you really do notice the fights that take WAY longer.

Even so, we just barely managed to pull it off. Brave managed to get the last strike in with one last toss of her mic.

The rock rolled over backwards, and then Gastly's face closed it's eyes, signifying defeat.

The others didn't look too good. Almost everyone had a few large cuts and bruises on them, and they all just looked really, really tired.

I pointed my 3DS at the monster, bracing myself as best as I could. The others quickly grabbed my back and pulled with me as the system did it's best to force the monsters back into the world it belongs in.

It took a long while, but eventually the monster was absorbed back into the system where it belonged. The face that was on it quickly flew out, muttering something along the lines of, "What a waste of time!" and then flew off.

And then we all fell over.

 _=Music: The Spoils of War=_

It was a moment before anyone spoke. Eventually, I managed to say, "Well… that was definitely NOT the Dark Lord."

That got a few chuckles. My Mii sat up, pan in hand. "I guess… I should start making more snacks?"

"If you would." I agreed, nodding from the ground.

The others seemed to like that idea. Everyone slowly managed to stand up and start helping my Mii rebuild his lost fire pit.

I started to help too, but then I remembered our spoils.

It seemed obvious to me at that point that most monsters drop food when they are defeated, and the rock was no exception. This time around the item was a brown hunk of chocolate just smaller than my palm. What really threw me off about it though, was the weight. I mean, that thing was easily ten pounds of chocolate, and I was taken back by it.

I was very tempted to eat it, considering I love chocolate (who doesn't?), but held back, instead opting to shove it into my bag with the others. I just hoped it wouldn't melt while in there.

I also noticed another bit of food lying around from what I guessed was the cloud monsters. It was a huge, fluffy mess of cotton candy, so soft and fluffy that I was almost afraid to blow on it, lest I lose it all to the winds.

'Well… here's hoping I don't mess this up by putting it in my bag.' I murmured to myself, gently placing the sugary treat inside.

 _=Music: A Cozy Campfire=_

I grabbed the money that also fell, and turned back around to help. "Okay, got everything. Now, what do I-"

I was halted by what I saw. My friends had already built the fire pit again, and my Mii was already going to work on more food, with the others sitting nearby chatting happily.

"Oh, hey Cameron's look-alike!" Brave called out, waving.

I stared with wide-eyes. "Oh. That was… fast." I commented, slowly joining the others.

Susie just smiled at me. "Mii's work fast when they want something."

"No kidding…" I murmured. "I turned my back for about twenty seconds and you managed to completely rebuild the entire fire pit…"

The other's shrugged.

Soon enough more food was made, and the five of us quickly ate some. The magical properties my Mii's food had made everyone look WAY more energized than they had been.

I couldn't help but smile lightly as I looked at all of them. They really did seem like they got along well together. My Mii with his powers of food…

...Susie with her staff of healing…

...Brave with her mic of music…

...Purple Guy with his boomerang dagger…

…

...me, with… my 3DS… I guess…

 _=Music Fades Away=_

"..." I quietly thought to myself, my smile slowly wanning.

My Mii saw that. "You okay?" he asked.

I looked up. "O-oh… y-yeah, I'm fine. Just… thinking." I murmured, half-heartedly taking another bite of food.

My Mii didn't seem convinced, but he and our other friends continued to talk more about something. I wasn't listening.

'Why… why am I here…' I thought. 'I… I can't do anything. The only thing I've done ever since coming here was tell my Mii was to do and force some monsters back into my 3DS… I can't fight like he and the others can…'

 _=Music: Map: Horrific Place=_

'And… what's worse… I don't even know where my family or friends are…' I thought darkly. 'And… I'm scared of that, and… I… I don't belong here… I never did…'

I started to grow upset with myself. 'That… that's not right,' a small, kind part of my mind argued quietly. 'Surely the other's think I'm important…'

' _But what if they don't?'_ the larger, darker part of me asked. ' _What if they only see you as a nuisance that just wants to stick around with them?'_

'That's… not true…!' part of me denied.

' _You're useless! USELESS!'_ the other part yelled back.

It became a little bit of a shouting match in my head for a moment.

Until I couldn't take it.

I jumped up to my feet, much to the alarm of my friends.

I quickly wandered away, muttering gently to myself, "You're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong… my friends clearly care about me… otherwise I wouldn't be here. You're wrong and you can't make me think otherwise…"

The dark voice in my head slowly faded away.

 _=Music Fades Away=_

I leaned up against a rock a fair ways away, suddenly tired.

The sound of footsteps came up behind me. "Kid?" Purple Guy's voice asked.

I turned. Purple Guy was watching me, eyeing me up. "You okay, kid? You just ran off from us without so much as a word, and… you looked upset about something."

I sighed. "No, it's just…"

I grew quiet for a moment. Purple Guy continued to watch me.

"I just…" I murmured, slowly sliding down the rock to sit. "I've got a lot on my mind."

 _=Music: Zonked=_

Purple Guy took a seat next to me. "That's something I know well." he chuckled. "I find that talking about it can help a lot, you know."

"Just… talking about it?" I asked, glancing over at the thief.

Purple Guy nodded. "Look, kid, I'll give it to you straight: I've done some things I'm not to proud of in my life. I've stolen from other Mii's on more than one occasion, I've hurt others, I've created more than one target on my back… That's why I became a Thief: I wanted to prove I can redeem myself against the monsters. Thieves already get a bad rep, so I wanted to show that even someone like a thief could do good in their life."

I watched as Purple Guy eyed their dagger. "That's why… and if you tell anyone this, I swear… but that's why I was really pleased when you guys said I could join. For once, a person, nay, a group of people, thought I was worth something. But… then I started wondering… would you still want me around if you knew what I had done before?"

Purple Guy sighed, and sheathed their weapon. "There's a lot in this world to be afraid, confused, or even straight up concerned about, kid. But you should never be worried to unleash your worries to a friend. You've got four of us, kid. Talk. You'll feel better, one way or another."

I looked away for a moment, thinking about his words. "Heh… thanks, Purple Guy… I actually do feel a lot better now."

Purple Guy smirked a little. "Happy to help, kid. Now, shall we go on? The others look eager to keep going."

I nodded, slowly standing back up.

 _=Music: Map: Greenhorne=_

When we arrived back with the others, all three of them made small glances over at me, as though they were worried. I did my best to reassure them all with a small half-smile and silently saying, 'Sorry… won't happen again.'

The fire was soon safely put out (for being Laid-back, I was rather surprised that my Mii triple checked to make sure that his fire pit, which by the way is in a place where there was only stone and barely any trees in a fifty yard radius, was put out.), and we all continued on the way.

"So… the Dark Lord seems to have moved on from here." my Mii recounted once we were on the road again.

"Seems so…" Brave agreed.

"Hmm… if I was the Dark Lord…" I murmured, looking at the 3DS map, "Where would I go next…?"

And then, I scrolled a little to the right…

And it hit me.

"Uhh… guys?" I murmured. "Unless this map is wrong, I think there's a huge castle over in the west…"

"Greenhorne Castle?" Susie asked, her head tilting. "I've been there once, I think. Why is that important?"

"Same. Traveled there once. Nice place, actually." Purple Guy remarked.

I glanced at the pair. "I think we might wanna try to go there next. If the Dark Lord has already messed with the SUBJECTS of Greenhorne… wouldn't the next step to take out the castle royalty?"

"One, erm, minor problem with that…" my Mii spoke up. "I've actually, ah, tried to travel down that way to visit the King before all this… and it didn't go too well."

"Why not, Cameron?" Brave asked (getting that weird sense of warped logic again knowing this Mii was my exact copy with my same name)

"Well… they have a very strict guard standing at the border of the castle. He doesn't let anyone through unless they have a special purpose." my Mii responded.

"Having the subjects of Greenhorne's faces stolen might be enough…" I reasoned.

"Unlikely…" my Mii murmured. "I tried to get in because I wanted to pass through, but the guard said that he wouldn't let me in even if I was getting married on the other side of him. He would only let me through if I proved I had some sort of special permission from someone influential."

I scratched the back of my head. "Well… that won't work, then…"

But then, out of nowhere…

"OOOOH! I have an idea!" Brave shouted.

It took us all off guard for a moment, before Purple Guy finally muttered, "...come again?"

"I remember something from before all this!" Brave quickly explained. "You remember that entrance to the forest we were in a while ago?"

"Forest with many mushrooms and heat and ambushes, remember that." I agreed.

"Don't particularly like it, but I remember." my Mii added.

"Well, close by to that, I think there might be a cave nearby. I went into it once on a dare, and I almost made it to the other side. And it looked like it might've looped around to the castle!" Brave responded giddily.

I consulted the map. Sure enough, just west of the Strange Grove entrance, there was what looked like a cave system that seemed to head in the general direction of Greenhorne Castle.

"Well… that seems like a good way to go." I slowly offered. "Who's in?"

Everyone agreed, and we all quickly went on the way.

* * *

It took a few moments, but with a few taps of my 3DS we arrived at the mouth of the cave entrance, named 'Riverdeep Cavern.'

We didn't even need to step foot into it to see how dark it was inside there. The darkness just seemed to slowly start reaching out to swallow us all whole…

I don't think any of us were eager to jump in at the moment. Even Brave looked apprehensive, and she'd been in here before. Not with monsters, of course, but still.

"Mmm… I guess… we should just go…" I murmured.

My friend slowly nodded, and we descended into the dark.

 _=Music Fades Out=_

The moment the entrance faded from view, I couldn't see two feet in front of my face. Even with my 3DS providing a small bit of light, it didn't do much seeing as it was just a black screen.

"I can't see anything…" my Mii murmured. I could still see his eyes in the dark, which was the only way I could know I was still with the others.

A soft thump rang out. "OW! Someone stepped on my foot!" Susie cried out in pain.

"My bad." Brave called out. "Can't see."

"Kid?" Purple Guy called out, down low to the ground. "Is that your arm or someone else's?"

"How should I know?" I asked. "I can't even see you."

We bickered for a minute, before I spoke up, "Okay, this is getting ridiculous. Everyone, hold on a minute."

We all stopped. "I feel like we're just walking in circles." my Mii spoke up.

"Yeah. Everyone, item check. Do we have anything that could make light? Just a little more than my system is making would be more than okay by me."

"Erm… I could try cooking something for a sec… it would create a little light, but not for long…" my Mii offered.

"My spells could work… for a little." Susie added.

"I got nothing." Brave responded. "We should've brought a torch with us."

"Or a flashlight. That would've been smart." Purple Guy agreed.

"Flashlight…" I murmured. And then, the obvious answer hit me.

"Oh my lord…" I slowly muttered in disappointment with myself.

"What? Do you see a monster?" my Mii asked.

"No… I'm just the biggest idiot in the world." I murmured, facepalming.

I quickly pulled out my phone and opened it up, turning on the flashlight option.

Glorious light spilled into the area, easily lighting up the entire area with no trouble. "Oh. That works too, I guess." Purple Guy stated.

I internally kicked myself a little for being dumb. "*sigh* Well, at least I had enough sense to charge it last night, so hopefully it'll-"

And then in blinked off.

"-last awhile." I finished, looking down at it.

Dead battery.

"What." I asked myself. "I haven't even used this thing all day! How's the battery already-"

And then I realized the problem. "Oh. Right. I think I might've accidentally unplugged this thing last night in my sleep… no wonder I found it unplugged near the bed.

"So… no light, then?" Susie asked sadly.

"I guess… not." I murmured, slowly pocketing the now-useless phone.

"Well… look on the bright side, guys." Brave offered. "It can't get any worse!"

I'm gonna interrupt here for just one moment to give you a little bit of life advice: NEVER say that sentence or anything that sounds even remotely similar to it.

Say it aloud is just ASKING for some form of karma.

I heard whispering in my Mii's general direction. "You say something, dude?" I asked quietly.

"I didn't say anything." my Mii responded softly.

And then I suddenly noticed:

There was a fifth pair of eyes with us. Deep blue eyes.

None of us had deep blue eyes.

I grew pale. "G-g-guys…" I whispered.

My friends slowly looked over in the direction I was looking.

 _=Music: Opening: Run Away!=_

All at once, something let out a most HORRIBLE scream. It was like… fingers scratching on glass and a chalkboard magnified at least five times over.

Needless to say, the five of us ran like CRAZY. We had no idea if that thing with the blue eyes was chasing us or not, but at that point we could've cared less.

We were definitely running further into the cave, but at that point I couldn't tell you if we had traveled five feet in circles or a hundred feet.

Finally, light was up ahead, and I grew hopeful.

We burst into the light, turning around quickly to see if that blue-eyed thing was still with us.

Nothing. The cave behind us was still and silent.

 _=Music Fades Out=_

The five of us let out a large sigh of relief.

Until I turned around.

"Oh. We… we might be here a while…"

* * *

 **Another chapter done and done.**

 **I'm assuming that you guys noticed the little music notices peppered throughout the chapter here and there, yes?**

 **Well, that's just me wanting to add a little aesthetic touch to my story. By no means are you REQURIED to read with this music playing in the background, but… well, believe me when I say that it actually helps me a little while writing to have the music playing.**

 **Of course, sometimes my music choices won't be exactly, you know, canon to the game, but are mostly based on what I believe would be the music if my story was told as if it was the game.**

 **So I'd better not see 'hEY tHaT MusIC DoESn'T plAY aT ThIS paRT Of tHE gAME!' or anything of similar nature in the review page. Don't- DON'T DO THAT. I'M WATCHING YOU.**

 **Anyway, all and all, I hope that you guys enjoyed the new chapter! I really feel like this story is taking the right amount of time to get stuff done, which is rather amazing. I mean, we haven't even gotten past where the DEMO of the game ends, and we're already five chapters in.**

 **One of the quirks you notice while writing, I guess.**

 **If you have any questions or anything like that for me, PM me and I'll do my best to answer when I have time.**

 **Until next time guys, this is ButterHunter, with only one more thing to say (say it with me if you know it!):**

 **Stay awesome! =D**


	6. Extra Lives

**Welcome, dear readers, and hello to another chapter of the Invasion of Lost Faces.**

 **Let's not waste our time, eh?**

* * *

Chapter 6: Extra Lives

The others turned to see what I was looking at.

That dark part of the cave we were just in?

That was only the entrance.

Now we were in what looked like the main cave part of the place.

Soft light was coming from massive crystals growing just about everywhere, and there appeared to be a flowing stream that followed the path forward.

I couldn't focus very much on that, however, because I kept hearing little noises all over the place. And I thought the forest was bad. In here, a monster could be at the other END of the cave and I'd probably hear any noise it made.

My Mii looked around with me. "W-woah… it's so pretty." he whispered.

I agreed with him, even if I was still worried deeply about monsters in here.

"We should be careful…" Purple Guy murmured. Even though we'd been running like crazy for a moment before, he didn't look tired at all or sweaty for that matter.

 _=Music: Subterranean=_

We cautiously moved inward, wary of any noises that sounded particularly close to us. The path regularly crossed the stream of water that flowed the direction we walked. With the deepest part being almost up to my calf, we didn't like those moments we had to wade through it. And yes, it was cold water too.

I was quietly gripping as we crossed one slightly larger part that managed to drench my feet…

When I heard a noise above us.

"Wait, guys!" I slowly called out, pausing.

The others did so too.

I slowly looked up.

I saw something moving high above on the distant ceiling.

"Maybe… maybe it was just a bat…?" I offered weakly.

And then a shape fell from the roof, headed right for my face.

Somehow I just barely managed to pull up my wooden shield at just the right time to block the thing from landing on my head.

 _*SPLUCH!*_

"Ergh…" I groaned, lowering my shield. A green goop now covered the entire face of my shield.

"That's gross…" my Mii muttered with me.

Then the goop opened it's eye.

I will not lie: I let out a not-very-manly shout and ran in circles around my friends, screaming, "AUGH! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF!"

My flailing eventually shook off the thing, whatever it was, creating a large squishing sound as it slammed into the ground.

Then it rose back up, and I realized that it was some sort of tiny slime, green in color with only one eye attached to it.

It didn't even move towards us. It just, kinda… sat there. Looking at us.

"What… is that?" Susie asked, grabbing my arm.

I consulted my 3DS. "Seems to be called an… 'Apple Jelly.'" I murmured. I did a double take. "Wait, does that mean this thing is edible?"

Suddenly, the slime slowly moved forward, not in an angry way, but more curious, it looked like.

And it seemed to be looking directly at Susie.

She looked slightly scared. "Wh-why is it coming towards me…?" she whispered.

"I don't know…" I whispered back. "But… it doesn't feel hostile… at least, not yet."

The cleric slowly let go of my arm and took a tentative step forward towards the slime.

The creature kept quietly advancing, up until it was almost on top of her, and then it stopped.

For a moment, nothing happened.

"H-hey… little jelly…" Susie murmured, gently holding her hand out.

The jelly gently touched Susie's hand, then moved forward and clung to Susie, the eye attached to it looking… happy.

"I think it likes you." I chuckled.

"Awww…" Susie cooed, her eyes shiny. She stood and hugged the little blob to her chest warmly.

"I think we found the ONLY friendly monster in this world, guys." I called back, glancing over my shoulder.

My Mii was running around in circles, with three more of those blobs chasing him, Brave was doing her best to dance around another one, and Purple Guy was dashing all over the place to avoid ANOTHER three.

"WOAH!" I shouted, quickly getting Susie's attention. "We have trouble!"

Susie stood up, that slime still cradled in her arms. "What?"

It jumped out of her arms and latched onto my face.

"AUGH! GIT ET AFF GIT ET AFF GIT ET AFF!" I shouted, flailing all over the place.

"Don't hurt them! I-I think they just wanna play!" Susie called out, sounding worried. Whether that concern was for us or the slimes, I couldn't tell.

Someone stopped me from running around and grabbed ahold of the slime on my face, pulling. I pulled backwards, and eventually the thing popped off and landed on the ground.

Brave, my savior, dusted me off. "All better!" she shouted proudly.

The other slimes grouped up around the one Brave threw off my face. Now that I could see again, I noticed that some had eyes, others had noses, and a few had mouths. Only one part for each, though.

"Let's do this!" my Mii called out to us.

"W-wait! I'm sure they don't wanna hurt us!" Susie interjected.

That comment was quickly disproven when two of the jelly's hopped forward and slammed into her as hard as they could, which appeared to be quite a bit considering, you know… 'jelly.'

"*sigh* Guess not…" she sighed defeatedly, holding up her staff.

 _=Music: Battle: Greenhorne=_

Susie (almost reluctantly) charged forward and slammed her staff into the slime on the far left, almost instantly defeating it.

"Oh boy, an enemy that's weak but comes in large numbers. Perfect…" I murmured.

Purple Guy huffed at me. "Watch and learn, people. This is how we get things done."

I heard my system beeping again, and I looked down in time to see, 'First Cool Quirk!' 'Pressure Point.'

He threw his Chef's Dagger with a bit more strength than I think he usually did, calling out 'That's the spot!'. The weapon sailed around and slammed into each and everyone one of the slimes, completely decimating the ones on the ends.

And just like that, the dagger returned to Purple Guy's hand.

"Seriously, you have to teach me how you do that." I stated.

Purple Guy smirked at me.

My Mii and Brave went next and then it was each of the remaining Apple Jelly's turns. They were reduced to little more than four, but that didn't mean they couldn't pose a substantial threat.

The first one charged forward for Brave, knocking her around a bit.

The next two charged after her, and she took a knee. The things might not have been very strong, but with one right after another all attacking her at once…

Then the last one tried to move for her, to finish her off. I tried to grab my sprinkles, but the slime was too fast. Brave's eyes were closed in worry…

And then my 3DS beeped again. 'New Kind Quirk!' 'Cover'.

Susie did her little dance again, and then rushed in front of Brave.

"Don't give in!" she called out, arms spread out wide to block the Jelly from Brave.

Brave looked completely surprised, right up until the Jelly slammed into Susie and retreated.

"Thank you!" the Pop Star thanked profusely, smiling broadly at Susie as she moved back to her normal spot.

Suddenly, I noticed on my 3DS the heart meter again. The heart between Susie and Brave filled up a little more, but this time it managed to fill in completely. It played a sound effect and then called out, 'Growing closer!', before returning to an empty heart.

The two of them seemed to nod a little at each other, glancing to the side, before doing a small pose together. With a start, I realized that they had just learned Show Off, like my Mii and Susie had before. As if that wasn't already cool enough, both Susie's and Brave's HP were completely filled on top of that.

'That's perfect!' I thought to myself.

Another few turns of my friends went, in which two more Jelly's were defeated, the last two were weakly still standing.

Then Brave had her move. She glanced over at Susie again…

And then gained MORE pep in her step. The line between the two came up again, and Brave threw her microphone with more force than normal.

And just like that, the last two slimes were defeated.

 _=Music: The Spoils of War=_

My friends had a brief celebration while I collected the spoils.

"Let's see… ooh, Slime Jelly, three whole servings…" I mumbled to myself, picking up the treats. It was a large hunk of some kind of pudding-like jelly, golden in color and on a rather fancy plate. "Certainly take this… what else…"

After I also picked up the money the monsters dropped, I stood back up and turned towards my friends. They seemed ready to head out, so I motioned for them to keep going.

 _=Music: Subterranean=_

I kept my eyes on the little mini-map my 3DS had on it every time we entered a dungeon. I was always trying to make sure that we wouldn't get lost in here, or miss some sort of hidden opportunity.

Then, all of a sudden, I looked up in time run headfirst into a signpost.

I recoiled slightly, rubbing my forehead. Slowly, I asked, "...why… why is there a random signpost right here?"

Susie stepped forward with me. "These things are all over the place… basically a way so that adventurers don't get lost while in a dungeon."

I hummed something in understanding, before looking back down at my 3DS. Suddenly an image of the world map came up on screen, with two arrows. One lead towards the exit of the cave, but the other lead towards what definitely was a rather large chest.

"Where should we go?" my Mii asked me. "You have the map."

I thought about it for a moment. Eventually, I selected the path that lead to the chest, simply because the game wouldn't show me something like that if it wouldn't be at least somewhat worth my time.

"Let's head that way. Maybe there's something useful down there…" I offered.

The signboard pointed us towards a slightly smaller part of the cave, that seemed a little more twisty than the part we were in currently.

"Roads less traveled." Purple Guy commented. "No telling what loot might be hidden back there…"

With no one else offering any contrary, we all headed into the path I selected.

Quickly after entering, the ceiling of the cave sloped downward quickly, making a very significant bottleneck.

And with my height, the only way I could keep moving forward was to get down on my hands and knees and crawl. My Mii was right there with me, seeing as he was the exact same height at me. The others were bent over themselves, moving slowly to not bang their heads against the ceiling.

"Me and my great ideas…" I grumbled to myself.

"Let's just pray no monsters like this part either, otherwise we might have a problem…" Susie softly commented.

"Oh, you all need to man up. This is nothing." Purple Guy called out. He was crouched down in a way that looked natural, easy. I had a feeling that if he was up front he'd have already made his way out of this spot long before us.

Brave was at the very back, and she was easily the slowest of us all. Her problem was that she kept getting her clothes and hair caught in the strangest of places, that made her stop and pull it free before she could keep going. "Ugh… my poor bow… I hope it'll still be nice and cute after this…"

Eventually, and I use that term loosely since it felt like days before we got out, the cave widened out to it's normal space.

I stood, stretching out my tightened muscles. "Urgh… feels really good to stretch…"

And then I heard something, just as Brave managed to get out and join the rest of us.

Quiet, soft sobbing, directly ahead of us.

My friends quickly grew cautious. Was another person in here?

"Hello?" I called out quietly. Even at that volume, my voice still echoed pretty loudly. No doubt that whatever was sobbing heard me.

The sobbing slowly grew a little louder, though that could've just been the echoing of the cave.

We slowly walked forward, doing our best to not draw the attention of a monster that could've been in hiding in the shadows.

Then, we rounded a corner, and we found our crying sound.

A figure was sitting on the ground, with deep blue hair and a small body, from what I could see of it anyway. It definitely was the source of sobbing.

"Is… that a Mii?" I hesitantly asked.

"I can't tell…" my Mii whispered softly.

We slowly approached the crying figure. It only seemed to cry harder the closer we got to it.

Once we were about five feet away, I slowly took another half-step forward and asked, "Erm… hello? Are… are you alright?"

The crying slowly paused, and the creature slowly started to turn around.

And right as I thought I would've seen what the creature looked like, it whipped around and shouted right in my face.

I fell over on my rump, my friends quickly jumping in front of me for my own safety.

The creature now was fully visible for us to see. The thing was wearing what looked like tattered children clothes of some kind. The creature had blue skin, and…

I almost gasped. Unless my eyes were playing tricks on me, I would've sworn those were the EXACT same blue eyes that I saw when we entered this place.

Oddly enough, despite not having a Mii nose or mouth attached to the creature, it still felt as though this was the first monster with a defined face, if that makes any sense at all. I could almost clearly make out some sort of shape akin to a nose, and there even seemed a place that would easily fit a mouth of some sort.

Despite that, the creature started floating up, the long blue hair of the creature almost creating a large circle around it.

"What IS that?!" I asked loudly.

Then, I heard giggling behind me.

I turned and just barely ducked in time to avoid something fast wizz past my hair.

Purple Guy got clipped in the back of the head, and he angrily turned around. "What in the-"

That's when I saw ANOTHER one of these blue creatures, giggling at us while… it's hair pulled back. I realized that I almost got hit by the creature's HAIR, of all things.

I started to sweat. "Erm… I don't like this…"

Then, as I tried to backup while my friends kept their eyes on both monsters…

"Cameron's look-alike! DUCK!" Brave yelled.

Unfortunately, the warning came too late, and by the time I registered what Brave was telling me to do, I was already face-first on the cold, hard ground, pain flaring up from the back of my head.

ANOTHER giggle, and it didn't take a brain surgeon to now that now THREE of those blue creatures surrounded us all. My friends were all backed up in a tight circle, with me nearby. I guess those things lost interest the moment I fell down.

I groggily stood back up. The hit to my head felt like a small truck had collided with it. Exaggeration, yes, but it still really, REALLY hurt.

"O-ow…" I moaned, trying to see if the hit left any blood or anything. I couldn't find any, thankfully.

My friends quickly got into battle ready stance, and the creatures floated to a place where they could attack easier.

 _=Music: Battle: Greenhorne=_

I slowly stood up while Purple Guy and Susie took their turns, quickly getting some early damage in.

Then the creatures, which I finally was able to identify as a horde of 'Banshee', (which was not comforting in the slightest.) floated forward and used their hair as large flails to jab my Mii, Purple Guy, and Brave in the chest.

'Huh. Guess not EVERYthing needs to be aimed at the face.' I slowly thought, getting my Mii to Flambé one of the Banshee's (I'm pretty sure I aimed at the one that hit me in the back of the head, but my thoughts were still a tad scrambled, so…).

Despite doing a lot of damage, the creature STILL did not fall, meaning we still have a large supply of three of these things to destroy. That thought did not comfort me at all.

A few more blows back and forth were exchanged between parties, and after another minute one Banshee was down with another close to being defeated. However, we were running quite low on HP Sprinkles, and that worried me deeply.

The blue eyed one seemed nervous. It attempted another blow at my Mii, but my friends simply retaliated by taking out the other remaining Banshee, leaving it all by itself.

It rapidly looked back and forth at all of us, before finally focusing on me. It made some sort of upset sound and then…

The eyes changed to be more… tear-filled. And large streams of tears poured from it's eyes while it made crying noises, though something about them felt rather… fake.

"Those are crocodile tears, aren't they?" I asked. "How dumb do you think I'll be to fall for…"

The Banshee wailed harder, and tears flowed even faster.

"To… to fall for…" I stammered. My mind's resistance was starting to crumble. "...a-aww…" I slowly cooed, my eyes growing quite teary. Tears started coming out of my eyes, large, blinding tears.

My friends seemed surprised at the the amount of tears coming out of me right now. I probably would've been too, had I not been so upset at seeing the crying Banshee.

"*sob* P-Please stop crying…" I blubbered, unable to stop the tears from flowing at all.

Suddenly, the Banshee did stop crying. It seemed… smug.

I tried to stop crying, but it didn't work. The tears continued to flow. "*sob* C-can't… *sob* stop…"

"Just… hang in there, Cameron's look-alike!" Susie called out. "Th-this can't take much longer, right?"

Susie moved, healing my Mii, Purple Guy set up his booby trap, and then it was my Mii's turn.

I tried my hardest to look at the options on my 3DS to direct my Mii, but the options were blurring together and making it impossible to see what was what. For all I knew, the options were suddenly written backwards Chinese and then turned into Pig Latin.

I blindly tapped an option, and tried to tap the enemy. My Mii raised his frying pan and charged, but… he missed.

"What-?" he called back. "Why'd you tell me to attack there?"

"C-can't… *sob* see…" I blubbered. "Can't see… *sob sob* see straight…"

"Kid, get it together!" Purple Guy yelled at me. "It was fake tears, you can't respond to that with REAL tears."

After a few more attacks from the rest of my friends, the remaining Banshee finally bit the dust. The moment it was defeated, my crying quickly began to fade.

 _=Music Fades Out=_

In a minute, my tears were all gone, meaning I was back to normal, albeit rather thirsty.

"Are you alright, Cameron's look-alike?" Brave asked me, her voice concerned.

"Eurgh… y-yeah, I… I think I'm okay now." I replied, wiping away the tear tracks left behind.

"Good, because your thing is beeping louder and louder." my Mii warned.

I looked at my 3DS. The screen was starting to turn red in warning.

"Oh… that's probably not a good thing." I murmured, preparing my stance. I was in no mood to discover what would happen to us if I failed to absorb the monsters in a timely fashion.

I quickly aimed it at the Banshee's, but… only two of them started coming towards me.

They were quickly absorbed back into the system, but the last one, the blue-eyed one… it stayed on the ground. The system didn't seem to mind, though, and returned to normal.

"W-what?" I asked, crouching down to the Banshee in question. By all rights, it looked defeated…

Then all of a sudden I was whipped back by a blow to the stomach.

 _=Music: Losing Face=_

I landed right at my friend's feet, and when I looked up, the Banshee was rising back up into the air.

"T-that's not possible…!" my Mii responded, his voice uncharacteristically shaky. "Monster's shouldn't get back up when defeated!"

Then, a horrible thought crossed my mind.

I looked back down at the 3DS.

The Banshee still had a tiny sliver of HP remaining.

 _It faked it's own defeat!_

"Oh for the love of-" I started to swear.

But then the Banshee…

Floated away quickly.

The five of us watched, dumbfounded, as the creature quickly floated away in a huff, still very much alive.

"... is… is that a consequence of me not acting fast enough… or…?" I asked.

"I… I don't believe so…" Purple Guy responded, his eyes calculated. "Banshee's are curious creatures. They have far more emotion than other monsters that we've fought before … perhaps that one simply got off lucky. If we see it again, we'll be more than ready to take it out for real."

He said all this while casually picking some dirt from… I would assume his fingernails, but Mii's don't really have those, so… I guess he was just making the motion?

In any event, he soon turned towards me. His face was… rather angry. "Enough of that. Kid, what HAPPENED out there? You just suddenly started bawling your eyes out. I mean, you should've at least KNOWN that it was a trap?"

I grew defensive. "O-of course I did! I just… I'm not used to all this magical emotion tapping and all that. I mean, if YOU had seen it's face the way I was seeing it, you'd understand…"

"Still, that's no way to keep acting. One of these days, your emotions are gonna get the best of you, and when that happens…"

Purple Guy turned, heading on ahead while finishing, "Then the Dark Lord wins."

He disappeared around a corner, leaving the four of us staring at where he left.

"Did… did I do something wrong?" I asked.

"Mmm… I think he's just a little stressed right now…" Susie offered, nervously fiddling with her staff. "He's probably just wanting to vent a little frustration before it builds up in him too much."

"Plus, he's under a lot of pressure to act cool and calm all the time, so…" my Mii murmured, though… he looked a tad miffed himself. I suppose that Purple Guy yelling at me kinda felt he was yelling at him.

I slowly took a deep breath, then stated, "Well, standing here's not gonna do us any favors. Let's just see what's up ahead."

The other three nodded, and we all went onward.

Turns out Purple Guy hadn't gone that far. When we managed to catch up to him he was staring at something just past the corner.

"Hey. Sorry, we were-" I started to greet.

Then I looked out at what Purple Guy was looking at.

MY eyes grew wide as dinner plates. The others crowded around to see what I was seeing as well.

Just around the corner, in a beam of sunlight from somewhere above, a massive, and I mean MASSIVE, chest was sitting there, made of some sort of bright blue wood and gold detailing. The thing was EASILY twice the size as me and my Mii.

"Woah… that's a big one." I murmured quietly.

Purple Guy's hands were rubbing together with a grin on his face. "Just what I like to see. Shall we?"

We all approached. As soon as we were close enough, I looked back at my 3DS and tapped on Open.

The lock glowed, and the chest flew open wide… but nothing came out the top.

Confused, I tried consulting the 3DS, but there was nothing on the screen.

"Erm… whatever's in there isn't coming out unless we make it…" I murmured.

The five of us glanced back and forth at each other, trying to see if someone would step up to looking inside.

"Oh fine." I sighed, and then quickly headed over to a small pile of rocks nearby the right side.

The others watched me carefully as I slowly pulled myself up past the lip of the chest. I quickly tried to see if anything was inside the thing…

When all of a sudden I slipped and fell inside.

As if THAT wasn't bad enough, the lid suddenly slammed shut on me, leaving me trapped inside.

"AH! GUYS!" I shouted, pounding on the walls.

Utter silence.

"G… guys…?" I called out, trying to hear anything.

Nothing. Either this chest was very soundproof, or my friends were so stunned that they weren't moving.

I tried looking at my 3DS for help.

But that's when a horrible, HORRIBLE chill ran down my spine.

I slowly looked behind me.

The face of a certain blue-eye Banshee greeted me, eyes turned up haughtily.

The color drained from my face, and I desperately pounded on the walls, screaming at the top of my lungs, "GUYS! HELP! THERE'S A BANSHEE IN HERE! HELP ME!"

The Banshee made a very evil giggling sound, and then…

Came the pain.

Over and over, the Banshee used it's hair to slam into whatever it could find. My legs, my arms, my torso, my face… everywhere.

Every hit felt like I was being wacked by a mallet. My body was screaming in pain. My bones felt like they were breaking, my body felt like it was bleeding…

And I couldn't do anything to change it. My friends were nowhere to be found, and I was all alone.

Eventually, I was lying flat on the ground, barely able to see anything with one eye blackened, some limbs probably broken, and blood oozing out of several large cuts on my body.

The Banshee looked quite pleased, and seemed to be pulling back it's hair one last time, to finish me off.

The hair came fast, and I did the only thing that I could think of.

Where the hair would've connected with my face, instead I blocked it with the only things in my hands, my 3DS, just barely.

The system broke into a million pieces, as though it was made of mere glass.

For a second, everything stopped. The Banshee froze in place, I couldn't move no matter what… it felt like the entire world had skipped a beat.

Then, all of a sudden, it was as if an invisible rope wrapped around my waist was suddenly yanked backwards at the speed of sound.

Colors and sounds blurred around me. I wanted to scream, but I couldn't move a muscle.

And suddenly, I opened my eyes.

And fell over on the spot.

"Woah! C-Cameron's look-alike, are you okay?" Susie yelped, staring at me.

I panted heavily, looking around wildly.

I… I was right back where I had been not even five minutes ago.

My friends all were standing around me, looking at me with concerned looks. I was on my back.

"Wh-what… what happened…?" I asked, shakily getting back up to my feet.

"You… you just pushed a thing on your system there, and… simply collapsed." Brave explained.

It was then that I saw the lid of the golden chest before me, and it was wide open.

My face paled. "M-m-m-monster… i-in the chest…!" I managed, pointing a shaky finger.

Purple Guy quickly took off, quickly scaling the same way I had and looking in. "What are you going on about? There's no monster in here…"

"Y-yes, there was!" I adamantly explained. "I-I climbed up to where you were, and was about to look in deeper when… when…"

"D.. dude, you've...been standing here the whole time. You never… climbed up there." my Mii responded, looking confused, concerned, and afraid all at once.

"I-I swear there was! I-it was that same blue-eyed Banshee that escaped, too!" I insisted, shakily getting back on my feet.

Susie looked at my Mii, then slowly came towards me, resting a hand on my shoulder. "Maybe… maybe you should sit down for a second, Cameron's look-alike…"

"I'm NOT crazy, guys!" I shouted, making everyone but Purple Guy jump a little. "I-I swear! I know I did!"

Purple Guy slowly climbed back down. Without our knowledge, he'd already grabbed whatever was now inside the chest and was already out. "Kid, give up the lie, okay? None of us believe you."

"I'm NOT LYING!" I yelled. "What about my tone and body language makes you THINK I'm lying?!"

Purple Guy's eyebrows scrunched together. "Look, kid, I looked inside that entire thing. There was no sign on ANY kind of monster in there. Only thing inside was this."

He pulled out a brand few frying pan from somewhere behind him. It looked like it was made out of some kind of stone, with white detailing on the inside edge and a wooden handle, painted red.

"A… Wok?" Brave asked.

"You know what that is?" my Mii asked, turning towards her.

Brave stuck her nose up a little. "I studied a little history before this. I don't devote ALL my time to dancing, ya know."

"Guys, please… I'm… I'm NOT lying…!" I insisted, but my voice was losing strength. Did… did I really imagine that?

It was then that my 3DS beeped.

And the area around me faded once more into black space.

"Wha-" I started to ask, before noticing something on the screen.

" _Cause of reset: Banshee. Explanation: After reducing Cameron to a point of almost death, the Banshee then destroyed the 3DS. Reset quickly occurred soon after."_

"Reset…?" I asked.

" _Well now, isn't this a surprise?"_ the voice of the Guardian spoke to me. " _Seems as though you let that system of yours get destroyed at one point or another."_

"So… I really DID almost die just then…" I whispered.

" _But, you allowed something worse to happen, and let the Banshee destroy the system. This causes a paradox of the world, since the entire world now should not exist. After all, it came FROM your system, did it not?"_

I nodded slowly.

" _It would appear as though the system is aware of this, and have developed a failsafe. In the event of catastrophic failure, it will quickly use the last legs of power remaining in those fleeting moments to 'reset' the world back to a previous state."_

"So… kinda like Extra Lives, then?" I asked, like the gamer I really was at heart.

" _In a sense, yes. But… I have a feeling that these resets are quite limited. After all, just like these 'Extra Lives' you are familiar with, you can only use so many before you run out. I estimate that you have ten chances remaining before… bad things."_

"...what kind of bad things?" I asked hesitantly, already a guess in my mind.

" _I don't believe you would like to know the feeling of having both your world and Miitopia consumed into a paradoxical black-hole-that-swallows-the-whole-universe type situation?"_

I shuddered heavily.

" _But I do not believe you should have much to worry about, however. I believe that you shall be most vigilant in keeping your system - and by extension, Miitopia - in safe condition."_

"Yeah… I guess it IS better to know the dangers, rather than be blind to them…" I murmured. "But… hey, if I just rewound time back to a previous point… how do you know what just happened?"

The Guardian made a sound similar to chuckling. " _My boy, I have much more power than you believe. Though, please do not try to reset too many times. Even I go back in time when it happens. It's… inconvenient, as you'd imagine."_

I nodded. "Thank you, erm… great Guardian."

And just a moment later, I snapped back to normal reality with my friends.

I suddenly felt really dizzy from everything that had just transpired, so I quickly sat down on a rock nearby and expelled a large sigh.

I felt someone patting me on the back. I expected it to be Susie, and I was not mistaken.

She was sitting down next to me, a somewhat worried expression on her face.

"I-it's okay, Cameron's look-alike… maybe you just need a break." Susie murmured.

For once, I agreed with her. "Yeah… I think so too…"

The rest of the group followed suit, and we all took a few minutes to catch our breaths and recover. Though I'm pretty certain that the others, specifically Brave and my Mii, were doing it purely to let me recover.

I have no idea if I actually managed to convince any of them of the Lives thing, not at the time, anyway. I knew that there was no way I could simply ignore it, or not tell them, but at the time I figured I'd just let the matter rest for a while. I could, and would, come back to it later. Not now.

Eventually, we got up and continued on our way, my Mii now sporting his new Wok. The path we travelled, however eventually proved itself to loop right back to where we started.

We agreed that we all had seen enough of this path, and we quickly made out way back, the return trip much easier than the way there.

Once we returned to the signpost, I instructed our group to head on forward towards what I hoped was the exit.

More enemies and such made the going slow, but we kept going. Eventually we'd find the end of this path, right?

Such hopes were proven true when, further ahead, the cave seemed to be growing lighter. Our group pressed on faster, hoping to find our way out of this cave…

And then we rounded the corner and were almost blinded.

The light flooding in from the surface was too bright for us.

Even so, we all raced forward to be in the warm, welcoming light as opposed to the dark, damp cave.

Slowly, my eyes adjusted, and I took my first look at this new area.

My first thought: We were much higher off the ground than normal.

This area was definitely more castle-like than all the other areas we've visited so far. The ground was like the wall of a castle of some kind, green stone bricks of some kind, and the occasional flag adjourning the path ahead.

"You were right Brave!" I exclaimed.

The Pop Star looked ecstatic. "Yes! I knew it! Maybe this will be a way to get to the castle!"

The others all looked hopeful too, and we quickly started heading forward.

However, our hopes were soon unfortunately dashed.

As we quickly reached what appeared like an old guard tower, abandoned, and no more path beyond that.

Purple Guy best summed up my thoughts. "Really? All that work in the cave, and it was for naught?"

Brave looked ashamed. Seeing that, my Mii stepped forward and offered a few words of encouragement. "Hey… at least you had an idea. It was worth a shot. Let's just head back and see if there was another path we missed somewhere."

We slowly started headed back towards the cave, the castle in the distance taunting us by being so close, yet so far.

However, I stopped.

The others quickly noticed my sudden pause, and looked at me. "Umm, Cameron's look-alike?" Brave called out.

I… I felt something was wrong. Something… something felt different, all of a sudden.

"I… I don't think we're alone here." I managed.

And then all of a sudden a loud laugh cut through the air like a boomerang.

And I felt myself getting lifted off the ground by a giant purple hand.

And then I heard words.

"Oh, DO you?"

Chara was here.

We were ambushed.

* * *

 **Oh. Well.**

 **That's certainly a way to end a chapter, no?**

 **But hey, by next chapter I can say that we'll be out of where the demo of the game itself ends, so hey! That's something, right?**

 **So, yeah, I knew that if I was putting my OC in, I needed to have a splash of crazy thrown in the mix, hence my rather sudden and, dare I say, brilliant idea to include the Extra Lives system.**

 **Expect that to come into play several times throughout the story. I mean, I wouldn't put something in my stories wouldn't them having some sort of special impact, right?**

 **But hey, how hard could letting a game system like that break again?**

 ***looks at own 3DS, which is covered in scratches and a few chips in the cover, among other small damages***

 ***clears throat* Erm, anyway…**

 **I hope readers enjoyed this chapter! This one kinda was weird for me to write for while at the end there, but I managed to get this the way I wanted. Or at least, the way that felt the most normal by the end of it all.**

 **If you guys have any questions, please don't hesitate to PM me, and I'll do my best to answer them.**

 **This is ButterHunter, and until the next chapter…**

 **Stay awesome! =D**


	7. Polka-Dot Squad Unite!

**Welcome dear readers! Welcome to another chapter! Now, questions will be answered!**

 **Will Cameron be freed from the grasp of the Dark Lord?**

 **WILL the party be strong enough to defeat him here and now?**

 **WILL WE FINALLY REACH THE END OF THE DEMO?**

 _ **WILL WE LEARN WHAT CHARACTERS WILL PLAY THE ROYAL COURT OF GREENHORNE CASTLE?!**_

 **It's all happening… right now!**

 **(Sorry 'bout the long intro, I felt like doing something different.)**

* * *

Chapter 7: Polka-Dot Squad Unite!

 _=Music: Dark Lord's Theme=_

I was completely frozen in place, and for no small reason. Chara's massive hand was holding me tightly, easily lifting me as though I was a small toy.

Chara seemed to laugh at my fear, then turned to look back at the others. "Well well well… don't you five just seem to always turn up where I go."

My Mii and the others looked afraid (some less than others, in the case of Purple Guy at least), but nevertheless they all held up their array of weapons and stepped forward. "You! G-give back my look-alike!"

I struggled, but Chara simply had too firm of a hold on me for me to do anymore than wiggle slightly.

Chara glanced down at me. "What, this little man?" he mocked, roughly petting his other hand on my head like I was a cat or something. "I suppose that could be arranged…"

"AFTER THIS!" he shouted, suddenly turning me around so that I could only look at his face. His eyes were yellow, and a dark symbol was appearing over his chest.

I slammed my eyes shut in fear, as my friends called out to me…

 _=Music Halts for a moment…=_

A second passed, then two.

Then the Dark Lord released me, and I felt a good ten/twenty feet onto the hard, cold ground.

My Mii rushed to my aid. "M-my look-alike! Are you alright?"

I slowly shook my head to orientate myself, then looked back.

My friends looked rather concerned but… oddly enough, I felt okay.

More than okay, actually. I felt… lighter.

A bit more… upbeat.

"W-what… happened?" I asked, slowly standing back up, a little shaky.

The Dark Lord grumbled something behind me.

In his hand was… something.

I say that because it was a shapeless blob of some kind, like pure energy, dark black in color and constantly changing shape.

"What is this?" the Dark Lord murmured. "This isn't your face!"

He threw the strange energy down at the ground below him, where it simply… sat there. Shifting.

 _=Music: Dark Lord's Theme continues=_

Nevertheless, he looked back down at our group, seemingly unimpressed. "Well, no matter. Although you bugs would be easy to crush, it's not worth my time."

He waved his hands, and summoned another faceless monster. This one had light blue skin, much like the Banshee's we fought not that long ago, with a pompadour hairstyle just like the Dark Lord's. Matter of fact, the more I looked at it, the more and more it started looking like a mini Dark Lord. The robe it wore was dark blue, and it held a trident as a weapon.

A face floated down from the sky, which I quickly recognized as Meloetta's face, the last one we needed to find from Greenhorne.

The Dark Lord looked quite interested in the castle in the distance. "That lump of brick and mortar is Greenhorne castle, if I'm not wrong? And that useless lump of a king… let's just say there's something special in store for his future! Muahahahaha!"

With that, he flew off, cackling to himself.

Leaving us with a small creature with a trident facing us, Meloetta's face quickly floating around the creature, beginning to fuse together.

"Let's do this!" my Mii shouted, hefting up his pan. The others followed suit with their own weapons.

 _=Music: Boss Battle=_

The newly created Imp Meloetta hefted up the trident and glared at us, seemingly daring us to make a move. Four Apple Jellies also crawled in on top of that, making the problem grow much bigger.

The Apple Jellies quickly darted forward and slammed into each of my friends once, thankfully only dealing minor damage to each. Purple Guy and Susie both retaliated, each taking on some of the slimes and defeating two of them.

I directed my Mii around to have him slam into the Imp, doing fair damage, though I could already see that the boss monster wasn't anywhere close to falling yet.

The Imp then hefted up it's trident, and then dashed forward an a rather fast speed, slamming into Purple Guy hard.

As if that wasn't enough, it suddenly started swirling it's weapon towards the ground, creating a large, swirling dark circle there.

"What's it…?" I started to ask, just before it slammed the thing into the ground in the middle of the dark circle.

A lava orange version of the trident suddenly sprung from the ground, right beneath my Mii's feet, damaging him quite a bit.

"O-ow." he murmured, standing back up. "That hurt."

Thankfully, in the next few turns the remaining Jellies were defeated before they could do anymore damage, and my Mii was healed back up, but then the Imp had another turn.

It, again, stabbed it's trident through the ground, but then, when I thought it was about to attack again, it instead… smiled.

That smile… unnerved me, to say the least.

Then, it started waving it's trident in the air. Dark runes started appearing, surrounding a large circle, and just when the shape was complete, it slashed it's trident through it, pointing it directly at Susie.

For a second, she looked fine.

Then, a darkened aura started forming around her. She leaned over in a crouched position, her mouth becoming twisted into an evil sort of grin, and her eyes… they turned dark as midnight, except for her irises, which were now a bloody crimson.

"S-Susie!" I shouted, stunned. "W-what happened to you?!"

All that Susie gave in response was a small, plotting cackle.

"Well, that definitely seems like something we should send you to the Safe Spot for…" I murmured, just about to press the button to send Susie to the back for a minute.

But then, suddenly, something grabbed me by the shirt and pulled me backwards, knocking the wind out of me and nearly making me drop my system on the ground.

I looked up, stunned, to see Susie there, giggling at my stunned face.

"What the HELL?!" I yelled, standing back up. "What was that for?!"

This was not the Susie we knew, at was for sure. She returned to her normal spot, still cackling, and didn't even move when her turn rolled around.

Purple Guy was able to attack on his turn, a relief, but when my Mii tried to make food so that Brave could heal up a little, Susie quickly swiped her staff upwards underneath his pan, basically sending all the under-cooked food off the edge of the castle.

"HEY! That was perfectly good food!" My Mii yelled, looking miffed at Susie.

"Okay, that's it!" I yelled, quickly tapping the button and getting Susie in the Safe Spot before she could cause anymore damage. "You're staying back here until you calm down."

After that was done, I returned to the fight, making sure to heal everyone as best I could with my HP Sprinkles, as one of our healers was currently out of commission.

After a few blows back and forth were exchanged, I glanced back, and just in time. The darkened aura around Susie seemed to be disappearing, and her eyes were reverting to the normal color.

She looked… upset. At herself, I'd imagine.

I quickly ran over to her, asking, "You feeling better now?"

"I… y-yes…" she stammered, slowly standing back up and holding her staff up.

"Good. Let's get back out there." I goaded, getting her back into the fray.

The Imp, now heavily damaged but not beaten yet, once again attacked and then summoned another evil rune, this time aimed directly at my Mii.

I braced for it, as I expected him to be taken over by the evil attack, but…

My 3DS beeped, and I looked down to see, 'First Laid-Back Quirk!' and then 'Nah…'

He lazily closed his eyes, and then shook his head in a bored fashion.

"Did… did you really just 'dismiss' the status effect?" I asked, half-confused and half-impressed.

"Yeah. I didn't really feel like turning evil right now, so… I didn't." my Mii explained, shrugging gently.

I could only give him a slow clap. "Bravo. Just… just amazing."

The fight soon ended, with a combo from Brave and Purple Guy, followed up by my Mii giving off one last Flambé, and then it fell to the ground, defeated.

 _=Music Fades Away=_

I braced myself as I aimed my system at the fallen Imp, and almost fell flat on my face at the sudden force of the whirling data lines. My friends quickly jumped behind me and pulled with all their might, and we slowly brought the Imp closer, and closer, and closer, until-

POP!

"Thank you, dear!" the face cheered at us, before flying away.

And we all fell over on our rumps.

 _=Music: The Spoils of War=_

"Whew… that… was… certainly a fight…" my Mii panted.

"No kidding…" Purple Guy agreed. "Even I had some worries growing there."

We all sat for a moment, letting ourselves catch our breath from the fight.

I glanced over behind me, at the spot where Chara had been only minutes before. "Welp… guess he's not gonna be an easy catch, what with all that teleporting he does…"

 _=Music Fades Out=_

I turned back around to see… all of my friends looking at me. Concerned.

"...what?" I asked. "Is something on my face?"

"No… but that's what we're worried about." Brave hesitantly explained.

"How… how did you not get your face swiped, kid?" Purple Guy asked me, for one looking rather worried.

I stared at the ground, scratching the ground. "I… I don't know. Maybe… maybe cause I'm not a Mii…? But…"

Then, I realized something, and turned back around.

Nothing. I saw nothing. Just an empty castle wall and a gentle breeze

That was the problem.

"When… when he did try… didn't he… I dunno, take some sort of… dark thing… off of me?" I asked, standing back up.

The others gave it a moment of thought, before Susie spoke up. "Um… yeah, I… I think so. Some kind of… black, shapeless energy blob?"

"Yeah, that. What happened to that?" I asked, again looking around.

There was no sign of the strange energy that Chara had pulled off of me. It… was simply gone.

Somehow, that unnerved me. "What… what even WAS that?"

"Do you… I dunno, feel any different?" my Mii asked.

I thought about that for a moment. "Actually… I kinda do feel… a bit lighter. As though… something that was worrying me was lifted off me. Though I don't imagine what… but even so, I… I feel a tad more energetic than normal." I explained gently.

I hadn't noticed it in the chaos of the fight, but now that the air was calm again, I… I felt as though I was suddenly lifted of some unknown burden. That… dark energy, whatever it was, must've been some kind physical representation of that. I dunno.

"But… you don't feel, like, wrong, or anything?" Brave asked.

I shook my head. "No. I feel fine."

The others seemed to be put at a bit more ease at that, though I think they were also thinking about the sudden disappearance of the black energy.

Regardless, the others stood up with me, and after I made sure to grab our new snacks (more Slime Jelly and a rather tempting slice of chocolate cake, with chocolate filling and chocolate icing and chocolate batter and- you get the idea) and gold, we headed back on our way.

 _=Music: Stage: Subterranean=_

Though… I noticed it just as we entered the cave. The other three were much further ahead, talking and singing and enjoying the trip.

But Susie… she was lagging pretty far behind. Her eyes were looking downwards at the ground, and she seemed… very upset.

I slowed down to match her pace, and told her, "The others are getting pretty far away. Shouldn't you keep up?"

Susie looked up at my face, held eye contact for but a second, and almost started looking like she was about to cry.

She charged forward much faster than I anticipated, almost barreling through the other three, her sleeve covering her eyes as she ran.

 _=Music Fades Away=_

I jogged over the others just in time for my Mii to ask, "What happened?"

"I… I don't know. I just asked her if she noticed you guys were going faster than she was. She took one look at me and just about burst into tears."

"We'd better follow after! She won't last long in this cave by herself!" Brave intoned.

She had a point. Susie wasn't very strong physically. One strong hit and she could be in very serious trouble.

The four of us jogged after her, listening to the sound of her quiet sobs.

We found her curled up in a small corner, making small sobbing sounds. I held my hand up to the others, in a 'wait' motion, and slowly approached the Cleric.

"Susie…?" I asked gently placing a hand on her shoulder.

She looked over at me, slowly. "O-oh… C-Cameron's look-alike… you came for me…"

"O-of course I would! You ran off, about to cry, in this dangerous place all by yourself. 'Course I'd be worried." I softly explained to her, gently rubbing her shoulder.

 _=Music: Zonked…=_

Susie sniffed gently. "I… I thought… that you hated me…"

THAT one took me off guard. "Hated yo- since when have I EVER made any sort of motion that would make you think-"

"I… the… evil…" Susie slowly murmured. "The… the time when I was evil… remember…?"

I recalled. "Oh… when you… kinda stopped me from being able to make you heal…"

"A-and… when I tripped up Cameron, I… I felt so proud, HAPPY about it, even. But… now, I can't help but remember the looks you both gave me, the annoyance, the shock, the… hate…"

Susie slowly broke down again, head resting on her knees while making gentle sobbing sounds.

My heart literally melted at the sight, and I just about started crying myself. She… she really believed that we hated her now because of all that?

"Susie… that wasn't you." I, rather forcefully, explained, pulling her up gently by the shoulders so she would look at me. "You were… possessed by something. That wasn't the Kind Susie we know and care about. Okay? I promise, I don't hate you. And I'm willing to bet all our gold and snacks that my Mii doesn't either."

Susie sniffled for a second, then looked back up at me, her eyes… shiny. "You… you promise?"

"I promise." I agreed, giving her a soft smile.

Susie took a deep breath, then…

Suddenly, she clamped around me, in the tightest hug I've ever felt her give me up to that point. "Th-thank you… I… thank you…"

 _=Music: Forgiven, then Subterranean=_

"N-no problem…" I choked out. "N-now… maybe consider letting me breathe a little..?"

Susie quickly let go, but she looked LOADS better now.

She quietly stood back up and headed back towards our friends, who had taken to simply leaning against a wall and talking quietly amongst themselves.

"Um… sorry… about that." Susie quietly apologized, getting the attention of the others.

"You alright?" Brave asked, gazing at Susie, concerned.

"Y-yeah… I'm fine." Susie replied, offering a small smile.

Although some of group didn't seem too convinced, they all nevertheless accepted the answer and headed onward.

My Mii and Susie ended up walking together, leading the path while Brave and Purple Guy talked a bit further back.

"Um… Cameron…?" Susie quietly spoke up.

My Mii looked over.

"I… I'm sorry. About… being mean." Susie apologized.

Cameron gave a small smile. "Wasn't your fault. Nothing you need to apologize for."

"I still feel… bad though…" Susie murmured.

My Mii gave the green-haired girl a pat on the head. "Don't be. You weren't yourself. If it makes you feel better… I forgive you."

I was somewhat amazed at both how sincere and nonchalant that response sounded. Susie must've been thankful either way, because she smiled a heck of a lot wider than before.

The trip back to Greenhorne was uneventful, save for a few monster attacks, but by that point we were getting pretty good at this whole fighting thing.

 _=Music: A Troubled Town=_

As soon as we stopped in Greenhorne, our first stop was the armor shop again, seeing as we had a fair cache of gold now ready for spending.

Everyone but my Mii got an upgraded weapon (made sense, seeing as he had already got a new weapon not long ago). Susie got a staff shaped and colored more like a lollipop than a typical staff. Brave got a mic that resembled an ice-cream cone ("what's with the food weapons?" I asked.), and Purple Guy got a rather fancy looking dagger made out of ceramic material. I didn't know at the time how well it'd hold up hitting enemies, but I wasn't going to judge.

I stepped out for a moment. I told the others I was going to give the remaining people their faces back, and told them to get some better armor.

 _=Music: Put a Smile on Your Face=_

Meloetta looked simply overjoyed now that her face was back on. "Oh, heavens! That feels SO much better!"

She smiled at me. "Thank you ever so much deary! I need to smile more, make up for lost time! Here, you have these. I made them to enjoy earlier, but you deserve them far more than me."

She slid my way three bowls of stew in… rather spiky bowls, black with silver spikes poking out the sides. "Erm… how does one… touch the bowl…?"

"It's better not to, honestly." Meloetta responded. "You might want this…"

She handed me a glove, to which I carefully used to place each bowl in my bag. I was just hoping and praying that I wouldn't look in there later to see each bowl had spilled out everywhere.

Gastly also had his face restored as I approached, and he looked somewhat impressed. "Whoa, my face! I got mixed up with a bad-un… you helped me… huh, guess you're not a bad sort."

He seemed to mull over something for a second, before reaching into his pocket. "...fine, I guess you deserve something. Here."

He… he tossed me ten gold.

TEN.

GOLD.

"Gee." I muttered darkly. "Thanks."

I shoved the gold into my pocket and brushed past him, taking a deep breath to calm myself.

That's when I looked up.

 _=Music: Greenhorne=_

The clouds that had been hanging over Greenhorne this whole time were disappearing, giving way to a clear, sunny sky. The Dark Lord no longer had influence here as all the faces were returned, I suppose.

"Wow, look at the sky!" a voice belonging to Brave spoke up behind me.

"Oh, hey guys. Get some new armor?" I asked, turning around. "Just returned the last fa-"

I stopped as I looked at each of them. They all looked at me back. "What?" my Mii asked.

I stared at the four of them. "Look at you four. You're matching."

The four of them looked at each other, confused.

Each of them was now wearing a polka-dotted outfit, like Brave was. My Mii's was a salmon-ish pink color, Susie's was the same green as Brave's and Purple Guy's was light purple.

The moment the four of them realized it, each of them gave a different reaction. My Mii sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, Susie blushed a little and smiled broadly, Brave started doing a happy dance, and Purple Guy… he facepalmed and gave a big sigh.

"You're like the Polka-Dot Squad now." I snickered.

"Do NOT call us that." Purple Guy warned.

"POLKA-DOT SQUAD, AWAY!" Brave cheered loudly, skipping ahead towards the exit.

Purple Guy facepalmed again.

As we approached the exit, me continuing to snicker at my friend's clothes, Mayor Ash waylaid us in surprise. "Wait, when did everything go back to normal?"

"Just now. We got all the faces back." I responded.

"Y-you did?! W-well, thank you! But… oh dear, what if the Dark Lord plans to attack again? W-we aren't prepared for something like that to happen again…" Ash explained worriedly.

He bowed his head for a moment, then looked up, an idea having struck him. "Oh! Adventurers! Please, I hate to ask more of you, but I need you to speak to our King. He needs to be made aware of the terror of the Dark Lord, and we need guards here just in case he comes back."

"We would…" my Mii started to say.

"But there's a guard in the way." Susie finished.

Ash thought about that for only a second. "Then here. Give me just one second…"

He dashed inside what I assumed to be his house, and spent a minute in there before coming back, a scroll in his hand. "If the guard give you trouble, just show him this. It's an introduction letter, and it will let you have free pass to and from the castle."

I took the letter, clutching it in loosely in my fist. "Thanks."

"Please, I beg you to hurry. Who knows what the Dark Lord has planned next…" Mayor Ash begged.

The five of us agreed, and we quickly headed off towards the castle.

 _=Music: Stage: Castle View=_

Just like both my map and my Mii had explained, a large gate surrounded by tall green bricks separated the Easin Hills from Greenhorne Castle. A guard stood at attention, who my 3DS quickly identified as Serious Soldier Obama.

 **(Notice: Any person in the story that bears similarities to other persons, real or fictional, is purely coincidental. Please don't sue me.)**

'Dear lord… this is starting to get ridiculous, these Mii's…' I quietly thought, as we approached him.

He stopped us just as we reached him. "You stand before the entrance gates to Greenhorne Castle. What business do you have here?"

"We need to speak with the King. It's urgent." I explained, my friends nodding behind me.

"I'm sorry, but traveller's aren't allowed in without permission." Obama denied.

I presented the scroll to the guard. "We do. From Mayor Ash."

Obama took the scroll and read it. Extremely slowly. It was a good twenty minutes before he spoke again, in which my friends and I weren't even sure he was even aware we were there anymore.

"Looks right to me." the soldier finally spoke up, rousing us from a game of Miijack (fancier name for Blackjack) Purple Guy set up fifteen minutes ago. "You five are free to go. Cause no trouble."

We quickly went past him as he opened the gates. The area now was very similar to the previous time we saw the castle: green brick path, with some land in a valley below us. We quickly walked along the path, sighing once out of earshot. "Well, that was something…"

"Man, I was about to win again…" Purple Guy lightly complained. "Oh well. Least we have free access now…"

"I just hope we don't run into any monsters here." Susie murmured quietly, looking back and forth as we walked across the brick pathway.

"We're literally on the castle doorstep." My Mii pointed out. "How would monsters even get up here?"

"Maybe like those?" Brave asked.

I looked ahead. A small horde of Cumulus were floating down onto the castle wall, looking like they were trying to stack themselves on top of each other.

"Well… I mean, they can fly, so I guess they have an excuse…" I mumbled.

Purple Guy huffed. "Let's just take care of them. Not much of an alternative."

The others all nodded, and we all charged forward and engaged in a battle.

The next twenty minutes were spent with us making our way along the path, occasionally fighting the few enemies that managed to get up here. At one point Banshee even floated up the castle wall next us, with five Apple Jellies happily clinging to the creature, with Banshee looking almost annoyed by the Jellies.

Even so, the castle continued to grow closer and closer the further along we go. "Wow… I've never seen Greenhorne Castle this close…!" my Mii breathed, looking amazed.

"You're telling me. I've NEVER seen any castle this close before!" I told him, looking up in awe at the bleached white castle walls, with the Greenhorne flag flying high above on the towers.

"You think… there's a princess inside?" Susie asked, almost wistfully.

"Nah, I doubt it." I snickered. "Princesses are always in another castle."

Even Purple Guy gave a good chuckle at that joke, and my Mii gave me a high-five. "Good one."

We all continued along the way, and before long we hit the entrance of the castle.

The massive wooden doors opened up when we approached. My eyes widened as I got my first look at the interior of the grand castle.

 _=Music: Greenhorne Castle=_

The walls were all a rather lovely creamish-orange color, or maybe that was just the effects of the humongous golden chandeliers that hung high above on the ceiling, with a nearly uncountable amount of lit candles on each one. Smaller candelabras, also golden, lined each side of the path, following a grand red carpet with ornate detailing on the edges. The walls were decorated with grand pillars with golden designs, and banners with the Greenhorne symbol hung between each one.

As the five of use walked along the path, we couldn't help but look around at all the rather amazing palace. As we continued further along, we spotted two guards, one being Serious Soldier Obama, and the other being someone called Lax Soldier DanTDM.

They both stood in front of a door, and I could see the other four next to me grow more nervous. The royalty of Greenhorne must be right behind the door.

For some reason, though… I felt no nervousness. Like, at all. The castle, once I got over the grandeur of it all, felt… no different as though I was walking into my house. I couldn't explain why. Maybe it was just because I never had met a group of people so powerful, my mind didn't know how to react?

Regardless, my other friends were bundles of nerves. My Mii kept compulsively straightening his apron and hat, Susie was anxiously smoothing out her sleeves, Brave was walking even more exaggeratedly with bows, dips, and even a courtesy now and again, and even Purple Guy must've been feeling nerves, as he was continually doing things with his hands, like juggling his dagger through his fingers, shuffling the cards he kept in one of his pockets, stuff like that.

We were just about to open the door when Brave suddenly spoke up. "Erm… a-actually, before we go in there, and meet the king… can I go use the little dancer's room?"

The others all piped up with similar notions. I rolled my eyes, and turned towards the Lax Soldier. "'Scuse me, but where's the bathrooms in the castle?"

DanTDM casually pointed down the path towards another hallway, saying, "Down the second hall there, first door on the right."

My friends all made a beeline that way, leaving me to myself. "I'll just wait here then…!" I called out to them as they quickly disappeared behind a corner.

"Your friends seem awfully nervous." DanTDM spoke up, leaning against the wall.

"Well… not everyday they meet royalty, you know?" I responded.

DanTDM let out a snort. "Our king doesn't really have to do much of anything, really… guess that just shows how peaceful Greenhorne really is though, huh?"

I shifted my head to the side in a 'you're right' motion, and leaned against the opposite wall.

That's when I noticed my 3DS giving me a notification. Apparently more faces needed assigning.

I pulled my headphones on fully and looked at the screen. Four roles needed to be assigned apparently. Seeing as I had little better to do, I figured I might as well do it now before my friends return.

The first role to pop up was the King of Greenhorne himself, which surprised me. 'This game really makes it all about the Mii's you create, huh?' I asked myself.

The second role was the Princess, to which I snorted as I remembered my group's previous conversation.

The third was someone new, someone called the Besmirched Noble's Son. It didn't take me long to realize that 'besmirched' wasn't a good thing, but who knows.

And the final role was also new, as the Prince of a Nearby Land. 'Wordy title.' I thought to myself.

It showed me all four characters, but something interesting was being shown as well. Between the King and the Princess, there was an arrow labeled 'Family' between them, and two more arrows, one pointing and the Noble's son and the other at the Prince, with both leading to the Princess again, both were labeled as 'Love.'

"Huh… that's new. And… ooh, a love triangle?" I asked myself. "Well, that certainly seems like something worthy of note."

I started to work, first tapping on the King. The system started thinking for a second, but just as I thought it was gonna show me the character screen…

"Oops! It seems as though this role is already filled." text on the screen read. "Seems like you have to choose someone else."

I squinted. "'The role is already filled?' What does THAT mean?" I asked. I thought that I could customize the King of all people. Who could POSSIBLY already be taking his role?

A similar experience was found when trying to edit the Princess. I started growing concerned. "Am I not allowed to fill any of these roles?"

However, both the Noble's son and the Prince easily allowed me to fill in their roles, for some odd reason.

"Odd… oh well. Guess I can't fight it." I sighed, quickly returning to the Prince's file.

His description read as, 'A prince of Neskdor and the princess's fiancé. Arrogant, but loves his mama.'

The line, 'Loves his mama' was more than enough for me to fill the role with someone. I cast him as Jacksepticeye, or just Jack, popular Youtuber and all around cool dude. "Besides, everyone is a little arrogant in their life. Why not him?" I asked myself, moving on.

The Noble's Son was a bit harder to place. His description was, 'Grew up with the princess, but now rarely gets to see her.'

The role was honestly a bit harder to place down, but eventually I settled with another Youtuber, as to keep with the previous selection of Jack. I settled on Markiplier, or just Mark to keep it simple, simply because A, I needed someone and he was the only one that felt at least somewhat okay, and B, the description kinda reminded me of how I was. I used to watch Markiplier all the time, but now not as much. Don't get me wrong, I still watch him. Just not as much as I used to.

ANNNNYway, once that was done the system accepted the two Mii's (which I just kinda created on the fly, but was actually kinda proud of), and the Royal Court was set.

And just in time too, cause my friends were finally rounding the corner back towards me, looking a tad more relaxed. "Okay, that's done… are we good now?" I asked them.

The four of them nodded, so with me and my Mii taking point, we entered the throne room.

Once inside, a voice immediately greeted us, welcoming us with, "Greetings, travellers."

Then we all tripped and fell flat on our faces, as the king suddenly slammed into the ground.

 _=Music: The King's Thing_

All I could make out of him before I hit the ground was that… he was fat.

Like, I'm not even trying to be rude, he was FAT. Like, gentle giant fat. He even had, from what I could process, a massive leg of turkey or chicken. One of the two.

But I couldn't get a look at his face in time because my face was planted firmly into the ground.

"Oww…" I murmured, rubbing a spot on my head.

"What business have you here?" the king asked me, his voice…

 _=Music Stops=_

Why…

Why was that voice…

So familiar?

I slowly managed to get back onto my feet, and when I looked at his face, I instantly understood.

I… I was staring directly at my own father.

 _=Music: Got My Eye on You...=_

Err, well, the MII version, I should say. That would be even weirder, to see the my real dad's face, wouldn't it?

But in all seriousness, it was the Mii based on my dad, spot on and everything. The large nose, the graying facial hair, the slightly spiky hair… everything.

Suddenly, as I stared at him, he… glitched. Like… an ACTUAL glitch, where… one second, it was the King, staring at us wondering what we were doing in his throne room. The next…

It was my REAL dad. Like, real flesh and everything. He seemed… mildly concerned about what was happening, and was staring directly at me.

Then it returned to the Mii version.

It… it was my Dad.

I fell completely silent, wide eyed at the 'king'.

 _=Music: The King's Theme=_

My Mii, having not seen my expression, took over, quickly saying, "Err, the Dark Lord attacked Greenhorne…?"

He started explaining, and as King… Dad, I guess I should say, listened, he seemed to grow quickly skeptical.

"...and this miscreant stole the people's faces, you say?" he asked, sounding like the story was ridiculous. He took a large bite out of his roast, taking only a few chews to respond to our story.

"Phff! I don't believe it. Such tall tales are the work of jesters and fools, not adventurer's like yourselves. Now please, kindly let us return to-" the King started to respond, but suddenly out of nowhere…

 _=Music Cuts Out Suddenly=_

His face flew right off of his head, leaving me and my four friends watching in surprise.

"H-h-heeeeellllllp!" the face cried out, quickly flying up and away, through the walls and to who knows where.

 _=Music: Losing Face=_

The now faceless king starting waving his arms in panic, looking very distressed even without the face.

"T-the King! We need to save him!" Susie cried out.

My other friends quickly agreed, and we all rushed out.

But… I was far too distracted.

"D… Dad…?" the question I had been meaning to ask, but never had a chance to, finally slipping out in a whisper.

But the words were quickly lost to the sounds of our pounding footsteps as we charged toward the gates, and headed off towards the opposite path away from the castle…

Towards where my Dad's stolen face resided…

…

* * *

 **Huh. Strange how an idea can sound rather silly in my head, but when I put on paper, it actually works out even better than I anticipated.**

 **Anyway, how's that for a chapter. Finally, we are out of the demo of the game an into the real meat of the story! Grab yourself a Royal Roast and a tall pitcher of Tornado Lemonade, we're going in!**

 **(Those are food items in the game, if you didn't get that.)**

 **In the next chapter, we shall see where this interesting development with Cameron's father shall lead!**

 **Will he and his party be able to save the King's face?**

 **WILL the group embrace the power of the Polka-Dot Squad?**

 **WILL THE GROUP BE STRONG ENOUGH TO FACE THE MONSTERS IN THE NEW AREA?**

 _ **WILL I REALIZE I WRITTEN TOO MANY RHETORICAL QUESTIONS FOR MY OWN GOOD?!**_

 **(This was meant to be a joke, but I'm actually finding doing this to be quite funny, personally.)**

 **We shall find out… in the next chapter. Until next time guys…**

 **Stay awesome! =D**


	8. Greenhorne Accolades

**NEW CHAPTER YADA YADA LET'S GO!**

* * *

Chapter 8: Greenhorne Accolades

 _=Music: Strange Grove=_

The path to get to where the King's face flew off to was monster filled, even before we got to the second forest.

It seemed as though Dark Lord Chara already anticipated us going to save the King, so he made sure the journey there would be as long and as hard as possible. Monsters came at us often, and though we defeated them fairly quickly, we were slowly losing steam, bit by bit.

But even with all the monsters plaguing the area, I was still quiet. Extremely quiet.

'My… My dad…'

If it was just the Mii version of my dad, that would've been startling enough. But I know that 'glitch,' whatever it was, showed me the real version of my dad. Human, not Mii.

Like the Mii was just a placeholder for the real thing. Or something.

…

'Does… that mean other people ALSO got transformed into Mii's…?' I asked myself.

I thought back to my family. Could it be possible the rest of them were also here, trapped in any of the Mii's I've created?

…

I kept thinking about it over and over…

Until I tripped over a tree root.

"Wah!" I shouted, falling over.

My Mii, who had been walking alongside me, stopped and helped me up. "You okay? I tried to warn you about that, but you didn't hear me."

"Oh… really?" I asked, my cheeks growing hotter. I managed to miss him say something from less than an arm's length away? That's… both impressive and embarrassing.

"Are you okay, though?" my Mii asked me. "You've been spaced out for… ever since we left the castle, like, thirty minutes ago."

"Y-yeah, just… I'm thinking." I murmured.

"About…?" my Mii asked further.

"..." I stayed quiet.

"...complicated stuff?" my Mii guessed.

"You can say that again…" I agreed weakly.

"Well… I won't push, but… just, be more careful. Wandering out here with no idea of what's around you… well, a tree root isn't the worst thing you can run into out here." my Mii reminded me.

I weakly nodded. My Mii appeared satisfied, rushed forward to catch up with the others.

I took a moment to collect myself and then returned to the others, just as we reached another clearing.

Everyone was on edge, seeing how many times we had been attacked already. Purple Guy especially looked on edge, as every little sound that didn't come from us made him pause.

The third time it happened, Brave and Susie both stopped and asked him what he was feeling.

"It sense something's here… something we haven't faced before…" Purple Guy murmured gently, his eyes darting back and forth in a watchful manner.

Then we heard a sound… that seemed to come from below us.

My friends drew their weapons as the sound slowly grew louder and louder, like whatever was under the ground was rising.

Then, the noise stopped, near a large, pink flower bud.

I grew even more wary. "And I'd imagine as soon as I finish speaking…"

Just as the words left my mouth, two shapes popped out of the ground. Two more of those Moles. Those irritating things have been showing up all over the place. It was bad enough they threw stones around, but they also appeared capable enough to dodge my friend's attacks.

My friends groaned. "I thought you said it was something new?" my Mii asked.

"I still feel… something." Purple Guy replied, before shaking his head. "Never mind. Let's just get rid of these things…"

 _=Music: Battle: Greenhorne=_

It was a pain to have to fight TWO Moles, but we had experience. The trick was to try to use things other than normal attacks. It might've just been luck, but I felt as though we missed a LOT less when we used skills and whatnot.

However, just as we almost defeated one of the Moles…

The flower that the creatures were standing on either side of suddenly shifted.

And it sprang up, a pair of Mii eyes being revealed to be on the other side of it.

"Okay, THAT'S new." I responded, staring at the creature. Apparently it was called a Mars Mii Trap.

The stem of the plant stretched out incredibly long. It honed in on Brave, who didn't know what to do.

And before she could even react, the bud of the flower opened wide and, no exaggeration, swallowed her whole.

My friends panicked. "Brave! Are you okay?!"

The bud opened up wide for a moment, as Brave struggled to force her way out. "Not particularly! Spit me out!" she managed to yell, before the bud re-closed around her.

I don't think any of us were particularly keen to learn what would happen if she stayed inside that thing for too long, so our focus turned from the Moles to the Mii Trap.

"Give her back!" my Mii shouted, after I directed him to strike with a Flambé. The hit landed, and I sincerely hoped that Brave didn't feel that.

" _It's dark in here!"_ a muffled Brave yelled out, with the faint sounds of struggling also ringing out.

"We're trying to get you out! Does it hurt?" I yelled back.

" _No, but it's weird! It's really hot in here and every time this thing moves it throws me around! THIS IS NOT COOL!"_ Brave called back.

"At least it's just holding her." Susie offered, while healing Purple Guy. "Could be a lot worse, after all."

I shuddered at the thought.

Fortunately, after another strike from my Mii and Purple Guy, the plant started to look like it was getting sick.

With a gross hacking noise, the plant spat Brave out and then collapsed to the ground, bud wide open.

Brave landed right back in her normal spot in our lineup, looking a bit perturbed and sweaty, but otherwise unharmed. "That was weird." she summed up, wiping off a small bit of plant from her arms.

The rest of the fight wasn't too terrible. I suppose the Moles expected the plant to do most of the heavy lifting for them, because they didn't even dodge the rest of the attacks we threw at them.

 _=Music: Zonked=_

After sucking them back into my system, everyone seemed to be getting lower in spirits.

Brave in particular looked a tad less bouncy than before, so I made a point to talk with her while we rested. "You okay?"

"Yeah… thanks for saving me, by the way." the dancer replied, smiling at me.

"I didn't do anything. All I did was direct my Mii." I replied, sighing.

Brave tilted her head. "Are you… upset?"

"What gave it away?" I sarcastically responded.

Brave looked a bit taken back, so I backpedaled. "S-sorry… just, I feel…"

I sighed again. "Like I'm not pulling my weight. I mean, you guys have been doing all the work, fighting the monsters, leading the group, all that stuff… it kinda makes me feel… like I'm not doing enough."

I rested my head on my knees. It was quiet for a moment.

Then Brave gently rested her hand on my shoulder. "Hey, come on Cameron's look-alike. Don't beat yourself up like that! You've done lots for us. I mean, you keep track of our items for us, you help sort everything, you keep us all focused when we get side-tracked… and I'd hate to think of what would happen if we didn't have you to suck the monsters away!"

She stared me directly in the eyes as she proudly stated, "If it makes you feel better, I'm very happy that you're with us. The group wouldn't feel complete without you."

Not gonna lie: I had to hold back a few choice emotions at those words. I felt my shoulders relaxing and I think I might've started to shake a little. "Th… thanks, Brave… I… I guess I needed that…"

"A little positive encouragement never hurt anyone. So I'll say it again: Thank you for helping us, Cameron's look-alike."

 _=Music: Strange Grove=_

She stood back up, looking more energized now. Admittedly, so was I. I felt… ready to get going again.

I stood up shortly after, getting the group back together. "Okay… so let's see. Where are we now?"

I pulled up the map on my 3DS. We were, of course, in a forest, called Wayward Woods.

"Hmm… I'd imagine that the King's face would be somewhere in here…" I mumbled, scratching the back of my head. "We can either search the long way or… there's a little bit west-ward that seems just as likely. What do we want?"

"It's gonna be sundown in a while. Maybe we should buck down for the night." my Mii responded.

"That would be nice, but I don't know if there's an Inn anywhere close to here." I responded back.

"Don't suppose any of us brought any camping supplies?" Susie asked, looking around.

Four pairs of eyes trained at me and my bag. I didn't even realize it at first since I was too busy fiddling with my 3DS, but when I did I gazed back at each of them. "What?"

"You have the bag of this group." Purple Guy responded. "Don't you have anything in there for camping?"

"I doubt it…" I murmured, rummaging around the bag. "Letter of Introduction… food… my clothes… chargers…"

I turned up a big fat negative. "Nope. Nothing."

The others looked downtrodden at that, but little we could do about that. I mean, a campsite doesn't just fall from the sky.

" _Oh ho! Feeling a bit sluggish, are we?"_ the Guardian asked, my amulet suddenly glowing. " _Well, I can tell you right now that there's not an Inn for quite a ways around here."_

That didn't exactly help group morale. "Any chance you have some help?" I asked.

" _Hmmm… well, actually, maybe… hold on."_ the Guardian replied, thinking quietly.

We stood there for a good long while. The sky was quickly darkening, and we were starting to get very nervous.

" _Aha! I knew I had something. *ahem*"_ the Guardian finally came back with.

It muttered some words under it's breath, and then suddenly my bag felt a tad heavier. I checked it.

A solid block of canvas was now in my bag, which I pulled out. "Ermm… this doesn't really help much."

" _Patience. Just pull on the rope."_ the Guardian responded.

"The rope?" I asked, looking around. Sure enough a large rope was dangling from the bottom.

My Mii grabbed ahold of the rope and yanked. Nothing happened.

I leaned back while holding the cube, each of us pulling harder. Still nothing.

Susie, Brave, and Purple Guy joined my Mii in pulling the rope as I dug my feet into the ground, pulling with all my might…

And then suddenly I fell backwards with a loud _*FOOOM*_ noise.

And then my view went dark. Whatever happened now left me in total darkness.

"H-hello?" I called out, before feeling the canvas of the exterior. I felt around more until I found an opening and then stepped out.

 _=Music: A Cozy Campfire=_

A tent was now pitched up and ready. And it was BIG. Like you could easily fit at LEAST five people in there, which worked out perfectly for us.

"Yay! I've always wanted to go camping!" Susie happily cheered.

"I'll get a fire going!" my Mii called out, also happy.

In five minutes we had a roaring fire going, and I was handing out snacks we were roasting over the fire.

If any monsters were around, they stayed away because of the fire I suppose. We were all talking and laughing as we exchanged general comradery…

But soon enough we grew tired. "I'm about ready to hit the hay…" my Mii yawned, stretching.

"Umm… but, what if… what if a monster tries to come in the middle of the night?" Susie asked, looking around.

We all looked around with her. While we could see or hear anything at the moment, that didn't mean there were no monsters anywhere.

"I guess someone will have to stay up to keep watch." I mumbled.

We all eyed each other, hoping that someone would speak up for the rest.

Finally the silence was too deafening. "You know what? I'll do it. I don't feel that tired right now." I responded.

A yawn almost ruined that statement, but I suppressed it at the last second. The others asked me if I was sure, but I reaffirmed that I was.

 _=Music Slowly Silences=_

So they all filed into the tent, leaving me all alone next to the still roaring fire. For a good twenty minutes, I sat there, keeping watch while occasionally putting another piece of wood on the fire.

I felt my eyelids grow heavy, as the quiet sounds of the forest, intermingling with the still warm and calming fire, put me… in a very relaxed state.

"Cameron's look-alike?" the quiet voice of Susie called out, coming out of the tent.

I snapped back up to attention, looking over at the tent. Susie was standing just outside it, holding her staff. "O-oh, hey. Something wrong?"

"You… you look tired. Maybe you should get some sleep." Susie offered.

I shook my head. "I'm… I'm fine. You guys need sleep far more than I do."

Susie gazed at me, and then… she sat down next to me, quietly. Not saying anything for a moment.

The air was a bit tense for a moment, before I finally worked up the nerve to ask, "Shouldn't you… be resting so you have energy tomorrow?"

"If you insist on keeping watching… then I'm watching with you." Susie responded, smiling at me. "Whether you want me or not."

I was surprised for a good three seconds, before… I smiled at back.

"Thanks… Susie." I thanked, quietly returning to my watch.

Now that I had someone watching with me, I already felt far more awake. Susie and I had a few conversations throughout the night, and… I dunno, it just… I felt like Susie and I connected easily through this. Almost like we knew each other, somewhere.

 **(*cough* Totally not from another one of my stories. *cough*)**

After a long time, the sky finally grew brighter. Dawn was finally… dawning… I guess.

 _=Music: Camping's End=_

Me and Susie were still awake, having just finished a discussion about the kind of stuff I remembered when things DIDN'T get absolutely crazy.

The other three slowly emerged from the tent, each of them looking well-rested and ready for the day. "Oh, hey guys." my Mii greeted.

"Mornin'." I greeted back, tossing him a Slime Jelly. He seemed to really like the stuff.

"Please tell me we can go camping again soon! I loved sleeping out here!" Brave pleaded with me. "The sounds of nature and the distant crackling of a warm fire… so much fun!"

"I'm sure we will." I agreed, tossing her a tall glass of liquid we grabbed from a defeated Banshee. Despite her basically drinking Banshee Tears, she loved the stuff. Said it had the perfect kick of magic to it, or something along those lines.

Purple Guy stretched, yawning. "Eh… I'm not really a morning person. Took me a few hours to fall asleep…"

"Shouldn't you have taken watch then?" I asked.

"I was just about to when you spoke up." he responded, casually taking the Cotton Candy I gave him. The stuff made him appear quite content.

"Now… how do we go about folding this thing back?" I muttered quietly, staring at the massive tent. No way we would be able to fold this thing back together with no idea how it folded in the first place.

Fortunately, it was far simpler than I thought. All I had to do was collapse the tent pole, and the thing just kinda… folded itself up for me. I had no idea how that worked, but I wasn't about to complain.

Soon enough we made sure the last smoldering ashes were safely put out and spread around, and then we headed off on our merry way once more.

 _=Music: Strange Grove=_

Everyone seemed in much higher spirits now. Even me and Susie, despite that we had got no sleep last night, felt refreshed. It honestly felt like I had taken a large shot of caffeine once morning hit.

And yet, we still had no idea where we were supposed to be going. The forest was still huge, and while we were all much happier, we still didn't have the foggiest idea where to begin.

And that's when we noticed something odd.

A old stone pillar, with a large amount of moss covering parts of it.

We all headed for it. "What do we have here…" my Mii asked.

We looked around. The same type of stone was dotted across the area, be it in more pillars or other small structures, almost like collapsed houses.

"Oooh… the ancient Mii tribes…" Purple Guy breathed.

"Ancient what?" I asked.

"Legend has it that the first Mii people to settle on this island built small stone huts like these, and many of them eventually went on to found the towns dotting the island to this day." the Thief responded. "The Greenhorne tribes in particular were famous for being the ones who popularized the idea of the Guardian."

" _I do miss those days, somewhat."_ the Guardian whispered to me.

"Wow… that's incredible." I breathed. "So these tribes… you don't suppose they had treasure, do you?"

My friends stared at me like I was insane. "What?" I asked.

"You can't just steal from the ancient tribes." Susie told me. "That's invoking some SERIOUS karma on your soul."

I snorted. "Try telling that to the countless explorers in my world."

A few eye rolls were given, but Purple Guy still looked serious. "I'm telling ya kid. The ancients may not be here today, but we still can't just take their gold, assuming they even have any. We should just pass through and get going back on the trail."

"Fiiiinnnne." I groaned. "Just a thought."

We continued on the way. The old stone pillars, coupled with the half-collapsed stone buildings, really made me believe this was once a thriving town.

"If so many people used to live here, where did they even go?" I asked, gazing at one particularly ruined house.

"Some moved into the faster growing towns, I suppose." Purple Guy responded, easily vaulting over a pillar that collapsed. "But I don't know. It's hard to imagine how an entire civilization could simply just disappear like this…"

I kept looking around, and that's when I saw it.

A huge, and I mean HUGE, statue. Sitting on a large stone dias.

"Woah, hold up." I quickly interjected. "Look at THAT."

My friends saw what I was looking at and grew even MORE intrigued. "No way! If that's what I think it is-!" Purple Guy breathed, looking uncharacteristically excited.

We rushed towards the statue. It was easily twice our size. But, at least to me, it looked incomplete. It was clearly supposed to be some kind of statue, given that it had arms and legs. But other than a massive body, there was no head anywhere on the statue.

"It really is. A Golem… these things were everywhere once." Purple Guy breathed, gently running his hand along the rocky hand of the creature.

"Golem? Aren't those living stone statues?" I asked.

"Yes… the ancients were somehow able to enfuse stone with life energy and bring these amazing creatures to life." the thief explained. "I wouldn't be surprised if the ancients used these as a way to help build their houses in the first place, or as a defense mechanism. But to see one nowadays, that's quite rare. Most of them had crumbled due to weather or other events. But this one still looks perfectly preserved."

I suddenly grew incredibly nervous. "You… you don't suppose it'll, like… reanimate or something, do you?"

"Doubtful. The most experienced Mii scientists in the world have studied these things. So far they have yet to reactivate a Golem. Nothing short of a miracle could make these things rise again." Purple Guy reassured.

And then, I felt something all too familiar.

 _=Music: Prebattle: Imminent Clash=_

The feeling of dread, like something bad was about to happen.

A chill ran down my spine. "Oh no… there's something here."

My friends quickly drew their weapons, glaring around the area for any sign of movement.

Then I felt something. Like a presence. Not like the Dark Lord's presence, no… more like a stolen face.

A really strong one, at that. Like the faces that were stolen from the Greenhorne people, those had felt far stronger than the regular enemies with only parts of a Mii face.

But this one… it felt even stronger than all the other faces back at Greenhorne COMBINED.

"I… I think we may have found where the King's face ended up." I mumbled, turning back towards my friends.

And that's when I saw it.

The face of the King. Just behind my friends. The face of my Mii dad.

"GUYS! There it is!" I shouted.

My friends all saw it and tried to jump up to grab it. Purple Guy even clambered up the old Golem, trying to grab at it.

But it evaded, probably not on purpose if I had to guess. "Help the royal face!" it shouted.

It started spinning around, looking for something to possess.

And then I put the dots together. "Oh no…"

My friends all backed up to me, seeing my face grow white. "What? Do you see the monster it's going for?" Brave asked me.

I nodded slowly.

And pointed at the Golem.

Purple Guy started to sweat. "N-no way. Even the Dark Lord can't have enough power to reactivate-"

And then the King's face fused to the stone surface of the Golem.

When the glow faded, it appeared like the Golem was asleep. For maybe half a second, I thought Purple Guy had been right.

And then the stone started moving.

Slowly, it rose up, as the eyes of the stolen King's face opened up and saw us staring in disbelief.

The Dad Golem was alive. And it saw us as intruders.

(And yes, it was called a Dad Golem. The Mii had the nickname of Dad after all, so… sue me.)

With speed I wouldn't have expected from a huge stone creature, it jumped off the stone dias and landed in front of us, crushing the stone ground beneath it into pebbles.

My friends, for the first time… looked scared. We were fighting something far more stronger and tougher than anything else we encountered so far. And I don't know about them… but I suddenly felt incredibly small compared to the Golem.

It didn't attack instantly. It stood just in front of us, making a motion similar to cracking knuckles before leaning to the side, one arm supporting it while the other was raised up in the air. I suppose it was waiting to see what we would do.

"M-meep." I managed.

"Time to run!" my Mii shouted, starting to grab my arm.

"No! We have to fight it!" Susie called out. "The King needs his face back!"

"We can't fight THAT!" I yelled back, gesturing at the creature. "That thing has to be at least twice our strength combined!"

"We can't just leave it like it is! Who knows what'll happen if we run!" Brave shouted back, waving her microphone at the Golem.

"Grr…" my Mii growled, looking at me. "What say you?"

I was quiet for a moment. I was scared, and wanted to run away so badly…

But I kept seeing my Dad's face, staring at me like it knew I was going to be the decider here. I… I had to save my Dad. Even if he was a Mii right now… I'm not about to leave him trapped to that Golem.

"We… we need to fight." I quietly stated, turning towards the rest of my friends. "The King needs us."

My Mii didn't appear to like it, but he sighed and readied his frying pan. "If you say so… but if the going gets tough, I'm running."

"Fair enough." I nodded. "Then let's do this!"

And just like that, we charged.

 _=Music: Boss Battle II=_

Susie quickly darted forward, slamming her staff into the Dad Golem as hard as she could. But beyond a slight recoil, the Golem didn't look too bothered.

Purple Guy also tried attacking, but his weapon was made more for cutting and stabbing as opposed to blunt force. It didn't do a ton of damage either.

The Dad Golem then stomped the ground, and quickly stepped forward towards my Mii. He charged up a punch, and slammed it's fist into the chef as hard as possible.

Thankfully my Mii wasn't slacking in the defense department, so the blow wasn't TOO heavily. But it was still a hard blow, forcing my Mii to take a knee for a second. "OW. THAT HURT." he loudly complained, as if we needed to know.

And then the Dad Golem jumped up and landed right in front of Purple Guy, throwing a punch at him once it landed. Purple Guy took the blow, taking a knee as well. He wasn't nearly as defensive as my Mii, so the blow did a lot more damage.

"Urgh… Golems were known for being strong…" Purple Guy groaned, getting back up to his feet.

"Sit tight guys! I got this!" Brave cheered. My 3DS beeped as she jumped forward, mic in hand.

'New Skill! Out of Tune!' the system said. "Out of Tune…?" I murmured.

"Golem, please don't bother us right NOOOOOOOW!" Brave sang, her voice going all over the place on the final word. Not to mention that the mic seemed to be amplifying her voice. I covered my ears in pain, and I saw the rest of my friends do the same. They seemed to be getting damaged by the horrendous singing.

But so did the Golem. It recoiled, disoriented as Brave finally stopped the sound.

"Ow! What was that?!" I yelled, half-deaf.

"I figured singing badly would damage it." Brave replied, shrugging. "I didn't think it'd hurt you guys too."

"WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU." Susie half-shouted, rubbing the sides of her head.

Her staff flared yellow, and the runes appeared around her as she healed Purple Guy while still being unable to hear much. Hell, I had covered my ears much earlier than they had, and mine were STILL ringing.

At least the Golem had taken a good hit from it, much more than the rest of us had. After I healed everyone with my sprinkles and a few more blows were exchanged, my friends all looked more or less recovered.

Purple Guy had laid down a trap before, which worked in our favor as the Dad Golem targeted him once more.

But just as the stone monster was about to attack again…

'First Laid-back Quirk!' my 3DS warned. 'Hide.'

"Hide?" I whispered, before seeing my Mii stretch in his typical Laid-back manner.

And then he dashed over to Purple Guy, peeking out from behind him. "Looks kinda sketchy out there…" he murmured, watching the Dad Golem.

And then the monster came and slammed into Purple Guy once again, with no protection.

"Oh, thanks buddy!" my Mii casually thanked, returning to his normal spot.

"You absolute jerk." I breathed, staring at my Mii in disbelief. Why had he done that?

Purple Guy looked irritated at my Mii too. "Cameron, what the hell?" he swore, and once again, I saw one of those little blue scribbles appear, this time over Purple Guy.

'That can't be good…' I thought, deciding that my Mii should use his turn to heal Purple Guy.

And then my 3DS beeped AGAIN, with another Laid-back quirk. 'Slack-off…'

My Mii stretched again, and then whistled quietly.

He still made food, but… somehow, it didn't look as good as normal. That's when I noticed he hadn't used as much MP as normal.

He handed the food to Purple Guy, but… the effect wasn't NEARLY as strong. Only about half of what the food normally healed.

"Oh, great. So you cause him to get damaged, and then you don't even heal him normally." I groaned, facepalming.

My Mii only offered me a shrug.

Maybe the Dad Golem could sense that my Mii was being lazy, because it tried to attack him twice in a row. The first strike connected, but just before the second, while my Mii was distracted by dusting himself off…

'First Assist! Warning!' my 3DS called out.

The yellow line appeared again, this time between my Mii and Brave. "Cameron, look out!" the dancer yelled hurriedly.

My Mii looked up in surprise just in time to see the Dad Golem pull it's fist back.

As quick as he could, the chef rolled out the way, just missing the punch by a hair. "Thanks for that!" my Mii called out, looking surprised but grateful.

The interpersonal relations between my friends were growing with each friendly action. I just now was starting to notice just how much they were trusting each other. My Mii and Susie were at level four with each other, and Brave was at level three with Purple Guy. Everyone else had a level two relationship with the others.

The effects of this became apparent when they all started Showing Off for one another, doing even more damage to the Dad Golem than they had normally. I started looking hopeful. A large chunk of the Golem had chipped off, and more cracks were showing on the tough body.

Yet even so, the Dad Golem was beating us down too. Many parts of my friends clothes had been torn up a fair bit, and everyone had many cuts and bruises forming very quickly.

Purple Guy was doing his best, but he didn't have the best defense compared to the others. Another untimely strike from the Golem, now attacking as savagely as it could, sent him past his limits.

His body bruised and beaten, all he could mutter was a "Humph…" as he passed out.

I panicked and grabbed my sprinkles again, but before I could…

'New Skill!' my 3DS beeped, and then, 'Resurrection!'

I looked over at my friends, and Susie had her staff held high. The golden runes were collecting around her even more than they typically did, and once they reached their peak she shouted out "Resurrection!"

The runes gathered around the unconscious body of Purple Guy. They flashed on his skin, as many of his bruises faded and cuts sealed.

And just like that, he jumped up, looking at Susie with grateful eyes. "I owe you one." he thanked, dusting off his body.

I followed up by showering HP Sprinkles on him. I noticed that the jar was becoming bigger as we kept going, holding more and more sprinkles. We had at least double the amount we started with at this point, and I felt like we weren't even CLOSE to full capacity.

The Dad Golem was now looking EXTREMELY damaged, and it seemed upset that Susie had a reviving move. It refocused it's attacks towards her, trying to take her out as quickly as possible to hopefully end the rest of us.

By the time it ended both attacks, Susie had only a SLIVER of health remaining. She looked like she was about to pass out.

And then my 3DS beeped, as a new assist ability triggered. 'Concern!'

My Mii glanced over at Susie, genuinely concerned for her. "You okay?" he asked, helping her up.

Susie's eyes grew big and watery. "Cameron…" she breathed.

The duo's friendship appeared to grow even further from that little exchange. She healed herself next turn, but right as I was about to direct my Mii to finish the fight off…

"My look-alike!" my Mii called out.

I glanced up. The Golem was staring right at me, with it's fist pulled back.

 _=Record Scratch=_

I had just enough time to swear ('OH SHI-') in my head before the fist crashed directly into me with the force of a hundred trucks. I didn't even need to hear them crack to know a few ribs were now broken, and who knows what else.

Naturally, I was hit with enough force to put me out cold. I could barely feel my heartbeat through my dulling senses, that's how much the blow hurt me.

I… I was feeling like I was sinking into the depths...

And that's when the golden light saved me.

It brushed me off, fixed my glasses, and restored my body. Cuts and bruises closed and healed. My ribs were being put back together. Everything was healing and fixing itself…

And then I opened my eyes and sat up straight, gasping for air.

Susie and the others were all crowded around me, each of them with identical expressions of concern. Behind them, much further than where we were now, laid the crumbled form of the Dad Golem, eyes closed and all parts of its arms and leg having fallen off.

"Are you okay? You were hit pretty hard…" Susie asked, lowering her staff with an expression of absolute worry.

"Eurgh… y-yeah… I-I'm okay now, at least…" I grunted, tenderly feeling my chest. Everything felt fine, albeit some soreness. "That… was NOT fun."

"I think your entire health was wiped out in one shot." my Mii explained, holding out a plate of food to me.

'I suppose I'd have the same kind of life system as them, huh…' I mused internally.

"But HOLY WOW, Cameron! How'd you DO that?" Brave shouted, looking directly at my Mii.

I looked at each of my friends. "What? What did he do?"

"When you were thrown back, he stared at you for a second, and… I saw that he was… angry." Susie explained, looking at my Mii. "He didn't even hesitate. He ran forward and slammed his weapon into the thing with enough force to completely knock the body from the arms."

My Mii shrugged. "I didn't like that he attacked my buddy, so I acted." my Mii explained calmly.

"You did nearly TWICE, if not THREE TIMES as much damage than normal." Purple Guy responded.

My Mii only shrugged again.

That's when I finally noticed my 3DS beeping harder and harder, trying to get me to remove the defeated monster before us.

Slowly I stood up and started moving for the Dad Golem. "C-c'mon… we'd better get this out of the way.

I aimed and braced myself, feeling the now-familiar tugging sensation the system gave me. My friends helped pull back with me as the Dad Golem slowly, ever so slowly, was pulled towards us…

And then with a loud *POP*, it was back where it belonged.

The face of the King, Dad, was now floating in front of us with a happy expression. "Good show!"

It flew off, headed towards Greenhorne Castle.

 _=Music: The Spoils of Victory=_

"We… we did it." I murmured, seeing the face fly away.

"We did do it, didn't we?" my Mii added, almost sounding like he didn't think we could handle it.

"YAY! ANOTHER WIN FOR THE POLKA-DOT SQUAD!" Brave shouted loudly, starting to sing a little ditty to herself.

"Ugh… that name is so dumb." Purple Guy groaned, nevertheless seeming proud at our victory.

"We should run back and see how the King is doing!" Susie encouraged. The rest of us agreed, and we all turned and ran for the castle...

* * *

As soon as we reached the throne room we saw the face coming through an open window.

It circled the King once before, with a quick flash, it fused back to its rightful owner. The King looked overjoyed, but unsure for a moment.

His loyal guardsmen brought out a massive, and I mean MASSIVE, mirror, which the King proceeded to make several faces into just to make sure it was him.

I'm fairly sure me and my friends were making the same face of confusion at the King's display.

"Oh, joyous day… the royal countenance is restored!" King Dad breathed, looking overjoyed.

 _=Music: A Happy Ending=_

And just like that, he broke down into tears, shouting loudly praise to our group. "THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! ACCEPT OUR ROYAL GRATITUUUUUUDE!"

And he presented us with a huge bag of money, which we all were EXTREMELY happy with. Our coin count was DOUBLE what it had been now, and we were extremely grateful.

"*sigh* Now, to replenish ourselves…" King Dad sighed happily, returning to eat more of the meat (probably a drumstick?) in his hand.

After a moment of eating, he returned his attention to us. "You know… that Dark Lord Chara is certainly no joke!"

I rolled my eyes at the comment. He appeared to not have noticed, and continued, "We're all in a lot of trouble with that scoundrel around. Go warn the Princess while we handle this, would you… *om nom nom*"

We looked at the other side of the room and saw another door, probably to the quarters of the princess. My friends started quietly wondering who could be on the other side of that door.

I… had a hunch. As soon as we opened the door, I suddenly could imagine who the Princess would be.

 _=Music Quiets Slowly=_

'If the King is my dad…' I thought quietly to myself, as we all filed in the room together. 'Then the Princess of the realm would have to be-'

And then I saw her.

The Princess.

She was looking out of one of the many windows of the castle, appearing deep in thought.

Until she heard us step closer. "Hm?" she hummed.

Now, I might've just been imagining things, but I swear that I saw her turning around with my view switching between three different angles.

 _=Music: The Princess's Theme=_

And just like that, the face of the Princess was revealed.

Paige. My sister.

She was the Princess of Greenhorne.

'Dear lord…' I sighed in my head.

"And who might you be…?" Princess Paige (*groan*) asked us.

We approached slowly, Susie and Brave both in total awe. Purple Guy looked like he was sizing up the Princess, as though his expectations hadn't met reality.

As for my Mii? He was staring at the Princess with a curious look.

As soon as we were close, I… I saw it again.

The same thing that happened with the King. The Princess… glitched out.

One moment, she was staring at us curiously. The next… she became my real-life sister, dressed almost identically to the Mii version. The look on her face…

She looked like she was stuck in a state of semi-fear. And she was staring directly at me.

Of course, she returned right back to the Mii version as soon as I processed it, and I heavily doubt that my friends saw any of it.

I stepped up to the Princess and carefully explained, "Erm, Princess… er, Paige… the Dark Lord has attacked Greenhorne. He had also stolen your father's face, we just recovered it. He told us to warn you."

The Princess looked worried. "Mercy me… the Dark Lord went to Greenhorne? Is Mark okay?!"

I raised an eyebrow. "Mark…?"

Princess Paige realized what she just said, and backtracked. "Erm, sorry… I'm worried about a friend of mine, who lives in town… could you please check on Mark for me? The locals should know him pretty well."

I internally sighed, preparing for the trip back to Greenhorne. "Right… well, I suppose a trip back would be good. Might need an armor improvement, after all." I reasoned.

The rest of my friends nodded, and we all started filing out.

Just as we passed through the exit gates of the castle, however… my Mii pulled me aside.

"Hey… um, I dunno if it was just me, but… something felt very, very wrong just then. I felt something… off. About the King and the Princess." he explained.

"How so?" I asked him back.

"I dunno… I just feel like… I should know them, or something. Even though I'm pretty sure I've never met them before…" he explained further, his expression worried. "Should I be concerned about that?"

For about ten seconds, I stalled. Trying to determine how dramatic his response would be should I tell him the truth, I asked, "Any idea WHY you think you know them?"

"It's fuzzy…" my Mii responded slowly. "But… before, I used to live on a different island. And… I swear there were residents on that island that looked almost exactly like them."

This was new information, and it sparked memories myself too. "A… different island? What kind of island?"

"It was a great place to live, honestly." my Mii explained, closing his eyes. "There was plenty of food to go around, everyone had a part-time job at any of the stores… everyone was friendly, save for the occasional disagreement. But we all rekindled our friendships in the end."

My eyes were widening. That… that sounded IDENTICAL to how the island in Tomodachi Life was. Was this Mii and the Mii I had on the island one and the same?

"But… like I was saying…" my Mii continued. "I… I vaguely remember two people like that on that island. But it's been a REALLY long time… I can't fully remember."

I was quiet for a few seconds. "So… you think the King and the Princess were once islanders on your home island?"

"Something to that effect, yes." my Mii responded, casually wiping off his frying pan.

I wasn't really sure how to respond to that. On the one hand, I COULD say that the Mii's of the Princess and the King were literally the Mii version of my own dad and my sister, and how consequently those Mii's very well COULD be his own family. I could say that.

But then I started thinking about future consequences. How would his attitude change if he was talking to the Princess if it was his sister? Or maybe, maybe he didn't actually HAVE family, or at least they were back on his home-island or whatever. Then this would be like trying to tell him that would be like telling someone from college that they were actually related to my own parents and we just never told them.

Regardless of whether or not it was the RIGHT thing to do, I shrugged casually. "I mean, I get the sense too, that there's something off about them, but… maybe it's just because we're, y'know, kinda one and the same?"

"Maybe… what makes you think there's something off about them?" he asked me back.

"I don't really know… I just have this strange feeling about it…" I responded.

My Mii shrugged in response. "Well, I'm probably just overthinking it. We should get back to Greenhorne. Who are we looking for again?"

"Mark, the friend of the Princess." I responded, looking at my map.

"Here we go…" my Mii sighed.

"You can say that again…" I agreed.

And soon after, we were on our way.

* * *

 **And there we go! Another chapter done!**

 **The plot is slowly thickening… so it seems as though Cameron's Mii came from somewhere before living in Miitopia.**

 **Mayhap people already know where he lived?**

 **Either way, I hope you guys enjoyed the new chapter. I know it kinda took a while to get out, but things have been getting… well, pretty crazy at college.**

 **I should only have a few more weeks left, before the semester ends and I have a break. So hopefully I make the most of that!**

 **But anyway, I hope to see you all again another day, and until next time guys…**

 **Stay awesome! =D**


	9. Quarrel on the Frontier

**Well this took a while.**

 **ButterHunter here! Let's get back into things.**

* * *

Chapter 9: Quarrel on the Frontier

The trip back to Greenhorne was pretty uneventful, honestly.

Besides running into a small treasure chest here and there, and an occasional battle with a much weaker monster, we were cruising along the path to the town.

Soon enough we found our way back to the town's entrance. Our first stop was to get some more armor and weaponry, as we had a fair amount of gold to spend at this point.

My Mii got a new uniform that looked like it was from a Chinese restaurant, with golden detailing and Chinese characters on parts of it, a bright red in color with the apron being a golden yellow color. He passed on buying a new frying pan though, partly because it was expensive, but mostly because now his Wok looked like it belonged.

Susie received a new set of vestments, these being made out of handsome brown leather with a large green button on the top of the hat. Her staff also got an 'upgrade' into a giant lollipop. I cannot make this up if I tried.

Brave got a new outfit, these being made of a soft fabric that had a picnic table-esque design on the bow and most of the other parts of her outfit. Her mic also was upgraded (I guess), into… an ice-cream cone mic. Don't ask me, I seriously don't know.

Purple Guy got some new gear as well, being a rather comfy-looking set of thief-wear that resembled what a pirate would wear, with a blue-white striped T-shirt and another purple bandana with a large anchor design on the side. He also received a new dagger, being a fancy dagger made out of some type of ceramic material. I wasn't sure if that was a good idea seeing as how that kind of stuff probably wouldn't be very good in a confrontation, but Purple Guy said that it would work for his purposes. I decided to trust him on that.

The only thing else that I could purchase was a few more HP Bananas and MP Candies, as well as a small upgrade to my wooden shield by reinforcing it with a copper plating. Honestly, I was still toting the thing around more often than actually using it to defend myself, but you never knew.

By the time we left, our money pouch was just about all but spent. Yet my friends all seemed to be in higher spirits now that they had new things to mess around with, which made it worth it to me.

We keep going deeper into Greenhorne, keeping an eye out for the Mark chap Princess Paige wanted us to check in with. In particular, I was keeping a very close eye out, as if my hunch was right, it was the same Mark that I had assigned a while back.

However, a full circle around the town bore no fruit.

Brave looked confused. "Where's the Mark guy? We talked to everyone here and no one's seen him at all…"

It was then that I suddenly felt a rather frantic tap to my shoulder. I turned to see that worried mother Bubblegum from way back when. She was staring at me and my friends with concern.

"Oh, adventurers, thank goodness you're here!" she quickly explained, almost out of breath. "I've been looking high and low for my little Buzz Light, but he's disappeared again! I need your help to find him!"

"Huh. I don't remember seeing him either…" I slowly murmured.

"Then he must've run off to the field just outside of town. He likes to go there when he plays hide-and-seek with me. Please, he won't have gone any further than that, I promise!"

A brief moment before me and my friends nodded. A missing child was a much more pressing matter. "Yes ma'am. We're on it."

Bubblegum looked relieved. "Oh, thank goodness. Thank you, kind adventurers! He shouldn't have gone far… please find him before he gets into trouble…!"

My friends nodded and started to head out, but just as I was about to follow-

"Oh, and young man?" the woman called out again.

"Hm?" I hummed, glancing back.

"I've been asking around a fair bit before you showed up… one lad already headed out to try and find him, but… and this might be a bit rude, but I don't think he really was up for the challenge… so if you find him out there as well, maybe make sure he's safe too?"

"Another person?" I asked. "Hmm… ah, yes, of course ma'am. We'll find your child and bring him home safe to you. Count on us."

The mother, relieved once again, headed off to the entrance to town to wait. I dashed to catch up with my friends.

The mother hadn't lied: it appeared as though we only needed to go to the outskirts of town to find the child, if the marker on my 3DS's map was any indication.

Once we got there, we rounded a corner from behind a pile of boulders, and…

"Okay… okay… deep breaths…" a voice, a deep, smooth, almost melodical voice murmured.

I recognized that voice anywhere.

A young lad was standing in the middle of the field, looking around worriedly. He had smooth, slick black hair, a hearty amount of facial hair around his mouth and chin area, and glasses adorning his face. His eyes were currently concerned, looking around as though he was about to get jumped by a monster or something: which, come to think of it, wasn't an unreasonable fear in this world.

He currently was appearing to psych himself up for something, and then he yelled out as loud as he could, "Buzz Light! Buzz Light! Where are you?!"

Then, another voice shouted in fear. "H-help!"

The young lad turned towards the voice, running for it.

That's when we saw little Buzz Light, currently backed up to a rock and surrounded by three Goblins easily his size. Something like that probably wasn't very good for his young childish brain to process, especially since each of them were slowly closing in on the child.

The young man paused for a moment, suddenly taken back by the monsters as if he had never seen one before. He closed his eyes in fear, then whispered, "I… I gotta do something…! You…! You get away from him!"

The lad started slowly shuffling towards the Goblins, trying his best to appear competent and in control of the situation.

And then the Goblins turned, noticed him, and LAID HIM OUT.

Like, there's no other words for it. He was taken CLEAN out by the Goblins, knocked to the ground with literal stars flying above his head.

At this point Buzz Light was crying in fear, and the Goblins were celebrating their victory. We ran up to assist.

"There's nothing I can do…" the young lad moaned as he heard us approaching. "Please, save the boy!"

We dashed forward, and confronted the Goblins. However, the fight was almost pitifully short, as we had grown so much. Seriously, the Goblins stood NO chance, compared to how we were when we started.

With the Goblins swiftly defeated and back in my system, Buzz Light looked like he had learned his lesson, at least for now. "Wahhh! Mommy!" he cried, dashing back for Greenhorne. There was no doubt he'd be running for home as fast as possible. He'd be safe there.

We were happy that the child was safe, but we only then noticed that the young lad was laid out on the ground.

My 3DS confirmed it: this was the same Mark that I had created back at Greenhorne Castle. Despite still on the ground in the same uncomfortable-looking position, he looked grateful. "Thanks for your help! I'm, ah, Mark."

My Mii looked surprised. "So you're… Princess Paige is worried about you. She wanted us to make sure you were still safe."

Surprisingly, Mark seemed to grow… giddy. His expression melted into one of utter happiness. "The princess… is worried about me?" he asked, dreamily.

"Ermm…" I hummed, taking a half-step back.

Mark snapped to his senses, and managed to get back on his feet. "O-oh… f-focus! What in the world WERE those things?"

We carefully explained how Miitopia had become overrun with monsters thanks to the Dark Lord, and how we were on a quest to defeat him.

Mark looked down at the ground. "I can't believe it… I turned by back for one second and all of this happened… and the way you handled those monsters… that was incredible!"

My Mii rubbed the back of his neck. "Aw, it's not that impressive…"

Mark shook his head, rather dejectedly. "I was about as useful as a chocolate teapot… I-I think I should g-go now!"

And he did just that, awkwardly shuffling away with tears in his eyes. We all kinda stared in his direction for a moment before returning to Greenhorne.

"Huh. Y'know… I kinda expected Mark to be…" Brave started to say.

"Something else?" Purple Guy offered.

"Yeah." Brave agreed, thinking. "He was… a little unreliable."

"But he's nice. That's gotta count for something, right?" Susie offered.

The others agreed. We found the child back at home, now pretending to be a Goblin, while his mother watched him twice as hard with an expression of concern.

As it was getting late at this point, now seemed like a good time to buck down for the night before heading off again. Thankfully there was still that Inn not too far out from Greenhorne, so we quickly made our way there and checked in.

Everyone hung out in one room for a little bit, during which I handed out snacks and such, and assessed how the party was doing. Everyone seems alright for now, if just a little tired from all the day's activities.

I sat down on the cot, and pulled out all of my belongings from my pockets. I plugged everything in and TRIPLE checked to make sure there was no way they'd come unplugged in the middle of the night.

My phone soon was awake again with power, and I placed it on the table for the night. I was half-hoping someone had left me another message while it was dead, but nothing seemed to have happened. I wasn't sure whether to be relieved or worried at the revelation.

The others held a short conference amongst themselves. I wasn't exactly sure what it was about. I was too wrapped up in my own thoughts.

I left the room, excusing myself to go think. My friends nodded as I left.

I wasn't sure where I was going. I was just wandering around, without really knowing where I was exactly.

By the time I stopped walking, I was just outside, taking in the fresh air. It was almost night at this point. The sun was below the horizon, making the sky glow faintly orange. I stared out into the vast expanse, taking in the cool air…

"Isn't it a little late for you to be out here, Cameron?"

I jumped a foot in the air and turned.

The Great Sage… Sans. He had just suddenly appeared here, as though he teleported in. He was watching me with a neutral expression.

"S-Sans… err, I was just-" I started to explain.

"No need." the wise sage interrupted. "I understand."

Sans leaned against the railing, staring up into the starry sky above. For a moment, he said nothing.

Somehow, I felt like… well, like this was MORE than just the Sage meeting me. I've always had a sort of… well, maybe this will sound dumb, but I've always liked Sans as a character. He's someone I relate to a LOT: laid-back, kinda funny, can come off as annoying but has a good heart…

It's dumb, but I've always liked the character probably more than most other people would say. It's almost like he's… well, a part of my life. I can't imagine my life to this point having never met Sans. And now that I was meeting a literal representation of it before my own eyes… well, it's not something that many people can claim.

All of this is running through my mind as I watch him take a deep breath, and then slowly turn.

"Do you… still feel weak?" he asked.

My shoulders slackened. I REALLY wanted to say no. In some ways, I DID feel stronger than when I started.

But… recent events, especially my close shave with the Dark Lord, and then more recently, when I was knocked out…

It really put into perspective how weak I was.

"I… yes." I replied honestly. "I… I just don't understand how _I'm_ supposed to help if I get knocked around by literally any monster that sees me. Not to mention that it's my friends who suffer, since they have to defend me in my stead…"

Sans studied my face carefully. I refused to meet his gaze.

"And yet… I feel as though some part of you… is different. You seem… more content." Sans responded.

I glanced up. "How'd you figure?"

"Well… something feels different than when we last met. Almost as though… something left you."

And suddenly, I had a flash-back. To the Dark Lord having captured me...

* * *

 _In his hand was… something._

 _I say that because it was a shapeless blob of some kind, like pure energy, dark black in color and constantly changing shape._

" _What is this?" the Dark Lord murmured. "This isn't your face!"_

 _He threw the strange energy down at the ground below him, where it simply… sat there. Shifting._

* * *

Great Sage Sans saw my expression shift. Without waiting, I told him the story of what happened up on the castle walls with the Dark Lord.

When I finished, Sans pondered the story, turning away for a moment.

"This… energy. You say it disappeared after the battle?" he asked.

"Well… I think so. I mean, I didn't think about it until after the battle was over, but by then it was gone." I responded.

"Hmm… are you familiar with the concept of Void Matter?" Sans asked.

"Void Matter? Like the empty void of space?" I asked.

"No. Void Matter is… well, it's a part of every living being. Everything in the entire world has Void Matter inside of it, whether or not they realize it. It's essentially a remnant of everything that makes the world what it is. But it is usually a very tiny amount. Probably not even enough to fit inside your hand. But you are _sure_ it was a large amount?" the sage asked, his expression serious.

"Err… yes?" I responded. "At least as big as Chara's hand, if not more."

Sans was quiet for a long, long time.

When he finally spoke, his voice was… neutral at best. "N-no. I-I… I must be mistaken. Surely _he_ would not-"

Then he remembered I was still there.

"Err… right…" Sans continued. "Well… it's actually not entirely bad that so much Void Matter was taken from you. Void Matter tends to have… unpredictable effects on people, not usually good. And the more they have in them, the stronger they get."

I opened my mouth, but… suddenly, I started putting the pieces together.

I… HAVE been feeling a fair bit upbeat lately. A lot more focused on the party and making sure everyone was okay. Even the crazy task of taking on the Dark Lord feels… slightly more doable.

"I… I guess I do feel a _little_ more able than I did when I first came to this world…" I admitted.

"What worries me is why there was so much Void Matter in you to begin with…" Sans mused, closing his eyes once more. "I can't imagine what would cause you to have so much of that vile material inside of you… but I suppose that is, for the time being, of no great concern."

I watched as Sans headed off to who-knows-where. He stopped about ten steps away from the Inn, turning around to call out, "You know, it's very late. It would do you well to get some sleep."

I stayed put for a moment, watching him retreat away. I would've kept going, but I blinked once, and then suddenly, he was gone.

I looked up at the night sky. The moon was slowly rising.

Sighing, I turned around and reentered the Inn.

When I came into the bed where my cot was, I was slightly surprised to see my Mii and Purple Guy still up and at 'em, staring at a pad of paper in Purple Guy's hand.

"Oh, there you are." my Mii greeted as I entered. "Thought you might've forgotten to come to bed, was just about to find you."

"Ah, it's… just wanted a breath of fresh air for a sec." I responded. I sat down on the cot and checked that everything of mine was still safely plugged in one last time.

"Time for bed, then?" the purple thief reasoned, standing up and going to his bed.

The lights clicked off, everyone gave their pleasantries, and sleep soon found my Mii and Afton (it's weird to think he actually does have a proper name).

I stayed awake just a little longer. I rested my head against the pillow, still thinking about my talk with Sans. It suddenly dawned on me that, maybe I should've told him about my Dad and sister… he wouldn't laugh, or think I was crazy…

'Maybe I'll run into him again…' I thought sleepily, turning to my side.`I want to know what his thoughts are on that…'

And, a tad uneasily, I drifted off into sleep…

* * *

It didn't take very long after we woke the next morning to get to Greenhorne Castle. We went right to the Princess's room as soon as we entered.

My Mii took over, explaining how Mark had gone off to help someone, but he was alright (though a tad bruised up from the Goblin beatdown he suffered).

Princess Paige listened raptly to the story. When my Mii was finished, she breathed a hefty sigh of relief. "So Mark is safe… that's a relief!"

"I do believe a reward is due." she added, holding a rather large sack full of gold out to me.

It was as I reached out that it happened. I tenderly took the bag, trying not to drop it, and in the process, my hand grazed the side of the Princess's hand.

One second, I'm standing in the castle, being handed the bag of gold by the Princess…

Then next, I'm standing in front of my sister, her eyes wide and staring at me. She's wearing an almost identical dress to her Mii counterpart, but that is hardly my main concern.

What worries me most is the fact that she doesn't look harmed in any way. Not one injury that I could perceive (at least, in the fraction of the second that I saw her, which honestly felt like an eternity), and by all accounts, she looks normal.

But it's the expression on her face. That constant staring expression, something greater than fear, as though the real Paige is right there and pleading with me to save her. She's trapped, and she doesn't know what to do.

I blink. The glitch fades, and the Princess is looking at me in a curious way. It suddenly dawned on me that I'm staring at her rather intently.

I step back and start pocketing the gold, doing my best to ignore some of the more curious looks from my friends. Thankfully, something of a diversion comes in.

In the form of the King. "Now, now child…"

Princess Paige is startled, and it's no real surprise. Considering the King's… err, girth, it's a wonder none of us heard him enter the room,

"You must forget about that Mark fellow, we've been over this." King Dad reminded, and the Princess suddenly had an expression of surprise, followed by great disappointment. "You are betrothed to Prince Jack, after all!"

The King didn't seem to notice his daughter's expression as he finished with, "Is that clear? *chomp chomp*"

Munching on his roast, the King exited the room, his guard moving rather swiftly considering their load.

"But… Father…" the Princess whispered, long after he had left.

She grew rather quiet, and stayed by the window, gazing out of it sadly. We had a feeling out audience with the Princess was well over, so we excused ourselves and headed back for the throne room.

The King hailed us the moment the door closed. "You five! May I have a word?"

Somehow worried he would blame us for the Princess's feelings towards Mark, I nevertheless followed my friends as we stood in front of the King. Thankfully, my worries were misjudged.

He respectfully bowed his head down at us and gave us a rather warm smile. "The princess's fiancé should be on his way, now that I think about it. And while you all are here, I would be most grateful if you would see him here. He rules over yonder kingdom. Would you, brave adventurers?"

A few glances, and we all agreed. After all, the Prince seemed important enough, and we'd rather avoid the Dark Lord finding ANOTHER face to steal.

"Much obliged." the King replied gratefully. "You should find the Prince in the Arid Frontier by now. Head there now, he won't be hard to find I'd imagine."

We bowed our way respectfully out and made our way.

The Arid Frontier, as it turned out, wasn't too far out from the forest we saved the King's face from originally. As soon as we broke through the vegetation at the edge, it became clear we had arrived: the place was, indeed, quite arid.

Stone platforms made the majority of the path, and rock formations were quite common. Although it was bare of plant life, it wasn't quite like a desert, the climate was too cool for that. Perhaps there was a desert close by, in the next kingdom? Wouldn't be too hard to imagine it going from stone to sand…

Our group headed onward, keeping a sharp eye out for anything out of the ordinary. For some reason, though, my Mii seemed to be in rather dark spirits.

I gave him a sideways look as we walked together. He didn't meet my gaze.

'Hmm… maybe I should call a break soon…' I thought. We HAD been travelling for quite a while now, maybe my Mii was just getting a bit grumpy.

Before I could suggest this, though, my Mii ran right into Purple Guy, who had stopped to listen for monsters or something.

"Watch it!" my Mii snarled irritably.

"You watch it, bub!" Purple Guy retorted, looking irritated as well.

The pair of them seemed to grow more and more angry as time went on, and both of them seemed to flat out refuse my thoughts of taking a break.

Me, Susie, and Brave hung back as the pair of them stormed ahead, getting more and more heated. The three of us weren't sure what to do: my Mii and Purple Guy were prone to getting heated, but it wasn't anything this bad before.

"You need to get that attitude adjusted!" my Mii shouted, his temper flaring.

"You need your mouth adjusted!" Purple Guy shouted back.

Finally, it looked as though neither of them could stand it. They gruffly turned their backs on each other, and I once again noticed the blue scribbles rising from each of them.

However, it was my 3DS making noise that told me something had REALLY gone wrong. It sounded like a crash. I looked at it.

The line that normally signaled a friendship between my Mii and Purple Guy suddenly looked different. The heart now was blue, and it was cracked. The line was the same blue shade, and jagged. The words " _That was the last straw!"_ appeared, first from my Mii towards Purple Guy, and then vice versa.

I felt my heart sink. "Oh dear…"

Susie and Brave were at my shoulders, and they too seemed worried about this.

At the moment, at least, it seemed that my Mii and Purple Guy had resigned to just not speaking, which was okay (in fact, considering they had done a lot of loud bickering beforehand, it might have even been considered an improvement), at least for a spell.

And then, suddenly, monsters came. A few Apple Jellies, as normal, and then a few of the boulders started rolling towards us, each bearing a single stolen nose (and just as aptly named, Nose Rocks).

Purple Guy, the speediest of our group, started to move first.

But just before he could throw his knife, I heard my 3DS beep. I looked at it, curious.

And then, I saw something not good. 'First Quarrel!', and then, 'Interrupt.'

My Mii, in a sudden fit of anger, jumped in front of the thief, shouting, "Watch it!"

And then he charged forward and slammed his frying pan into the Nose Rock.

Purple Guy looked a little taken back, but nevertheless recollected himself and threw his knife as soon as my Mii was back in place.

"Nothing good is gonna come from this…" I murmured, watching Susie give my Mii a small glance of worry before she slammed her staff into the Nose Rock, effectively defeating it.

Brave had her turn, and the remaining Jellies started to attack. But just as the first one started to turn towards Purple Guy…

My 3DS beeped again. Already nervous, I looked at it as it flashed more words. 'First Quarrel!', 'Distracted.'

Purple Guy glanced away from the monsters, and instead looked at my Mii. "Tut…"

And before he could look back, one of the Jellies came forward and slammed into him so hard, he was knocked onto his back. It looked as though he had taken extra damage from his guard being lowered.

I grew even more nervous as the rest of the Jellies attacked, but this time the quarreling pair stayed focused on the battle. Purple Guy managed to attack once more, defeating two more Jellies, leaving two left.

But apparently my Mii didn't like that. My 3DS came back with yet ANOTHER warning for me, saying, 'First Quarrel!', 'Moody'

"Now you've done it!" my Mii shouted, apparently outraged that Purple Guy managed to defeat those monsters. When his turn came 'round, it looked as though my Mii couldn't be bothered.

He still ran forward to strike, but I could tell his attempt was half-hearted at best. Somehow it still managed to defeat the monster, albeit just barely. He barely even seemed to notice, though.

The fight didn't last much longer past that, thankfully. Rather than talk about the battle, though, my Mii and Purple Guy each turned their backs to one another and said nothing, no matter what any of us said.

Once we started moving again, I hung back with my Mii while Purple Guy moved ahead. He still seemed pretty irritable.

"I know what you're gonna say." my Mii interrupted before I could even open my mouth. "You want me to get along with Purple Guy again."

"That… is the long and short of it, yes." I responded.

"Well save your breath. I'm not gonna apologize until HE does." my Mii curtly retorted.

"But we can't have you both in a tizzy with each other! We need all our wits about us." I responded.

"And I get that. But I didn't start this, and I'm not gonna apologize. Not unless he does."

And my Mii basically didn't speak about it again.

I hung back a little, and Susie and Brave joined me.

"Any luck?" Susie asked.

"No." I responded sadly.

"Purple's being stubborn too." Brave sighed.

I gave her a strange look. "Purple?"

"Well, it's easier than adding, 'Guy' at the end of it." Brave shrugged.

"Guys, focus." Susie responded, and it looked like she was getting rather desperate. "What are we gonna do?"

I looked ahead. It was getting late again, we had spent much more time than I would've thought just getting here. I could see, just up ahead, yet another Inn, it's lights glowing invitingly.

"Hmm… maybe we should FORCE them to get along…" I mused.

"How?" Susie and Brave asked at the same time.

"You'll see…" I replied, still working out how I plan for this to work.

Soon enough, we reached the Inn. My Mii and Purple Guy still weren't speaking. My Mii went up to grab rooms, while Purple Guy said he was going to use the bathroom.

As soon as I could, I looked at my 3DS. I saw all four of the little markers indicating each of my friends, and the rooms we would soon be getting. I quickly sorted it out so that my Mii and Purple Guy were sharing the same room.

Sure enough, when Purple Guy came back up, he immediately headed for the same room my Mii was already in. Now came the tricky part. Assuming that they don't start trying to bicker with each other, what would keep them from simply refusing to sleep in the same room?

Purple Guy opened the door and closed it. I didn't hear anything for a solid five minutes afterwards (trust me, I stayed right outside the door, so I would know).

As far as I can figure, the two just simply… slept. They didn't argue, they didn't talk, they did nothing.

I figure that maybe when they wake up, they'll be a BIT more in a mood to get along. Maybe.

Since I didn't want to enter and accidentally make a bad situation worse, I ended up just bunking with the girls. It was a bit awkward, but still, I'd rather be here than with two angry men.

Susie, Brave, and I all gathered together and shared nervous comments about my plan. So far, the two had avoided killing each other. But would they wake up and find the two of them shouting at each other? It almost made us want to simply stay up and wait for the morning.

But we all knew that wouldn't do us any good. So we fell into our respective beds and started trying to fall asleep.

I think Susie was the first to do so. I could hear her gentle breathing change at some point or another. Brave took a lot longer: she kept twisting and turning about in her bed, and I could tell she was doing the same thing I was doing.

Listening. For anything. A crash. A yell. A flaming hot cake slapping into someone's face. Anything.

Eventually, though, she managed to conk out as well.

I stayed up for a long time. I couldn't help myself.

I was just SO high-strung. After fearing about it so much, I almost hoped FOR it to happen. Just to help relieve the tension.

But, eventually, I knew that staying awake on the off chance it COULD happen won't do me any good. I needed all the rest I could get.

I managed to flip onto one side, and slowly, I closed my eyes.

I stayed that way for a long time. I still listened.

I listened as long as I could. I didn't open my eyes, though.

I listened until I could finally feel my mind slipping into sleep.

And sleep finally found me…

* * *

I woke up to the sound of something breaking.

I sat bolt upright, as if I had never fallen asleep in the first place.

Susie and Brave were up already, with Brave's bow askew on her head and Susie's hat on the ground next to her, and both were looking at the far wall.

A decorative painting had fallen off the wall, shattering the glass in the frame. That explained what had broken, but how had it fallen off in the first place?

Susie noticed me up first. "Oh, Cameron's look-alike! Thank goodness… something just crashed into the wall on their side, and whatever it was sounded pretty large…"

I stood up quickly and was already heading for the door. I threw it open and quickly headed for the other guys' rooms, the girls hot on my heels.

I slowly opened the door, expecting to hear something like fighting going on back here.

"YOU IDIOT!"

I recoiled. That was my Mii, no doubt about it. He sounded REALLY ticked off. I slowly opened the door while knocking. "Umm… good morning you two?"

Purple Guy and my Mii were on opposite sides of the room, with the thief glaring at the chef. My Mii, for some reason, had both his frying pan and Purple Guy's dagger in his hands, and he was looking at Purple Guy with utter disbelief.

"What the actual HELL, man!" my Mii cursed, looking at his frying pan. "I asked you to pass it to me, not chuck it at the wall!"

'So that's how the painting fell…' I thought, but at this point I had bigger problems.

Purple Guy looked affronted. "I was aiming for your bed. Clearly I misjudged the weight of your weapon. So what?"

"So what?! You could've dented my weapon, or worse, put a hole in the wall! We don't have the money to repair something like THAT!" my Mii responded, looking all around at his frying pan.

"Seems fine to me. Now, how about you hand me back my dagger so we can go about the rest of our day?" Purple Guy asked casually.

In anger, my Mii threw the dagger in Purple Guy's general direction. Had Purple Guy not been used to catching his sharp weapon, I'm willing to bet the toss might have done a fair bit of damage.

Purple Guy, however, didn't seem to care. He tucked it into his scabbard and turned to me. "Morning. We going to breakfast?"

I gently looked between the pair of them. They still didn't seem like they cared too much about each other, but… was I wrong, or did the two of them seem… a little less angry? Sure, my Mii WAS still fuming about the whole throwing his pan at the wall thing, but… unless I was mistaken, the air didn't feel QUITE so tense as it had been. Like they were slowly getting used to each other again.

I took it in stride and, as calmly as possible, asked if the two of them were ready to eat.

They both agreed, still not quite meeting each other's eyes.

At breakfast, things were still a bit expectant, like we were waiting for the two to start bickering or fighting again.

Susie and Brave chose to sit next to me, partly so that they could help break up the two quicker if they did start fighting, but mostly because they wanted to ask if my plan had worked, even if only slightly.

I was fiddling with my 3DS, trying to figure that out myself. I finally got to where I could see the friendships between everyone, and…

I looked closer. While it still did look as though the pair of them had a quarrel with each other… it was like there were two smaller blue arrows above the main blue arrow, and each of those two small arrows seemed to have had a portioned drained from it.

"So it DID work…!" I whispered, showing the girls my findings.

That's when Purple Guy piped up, cleared his throat, and spoke. He addressed my Mii and spoke, quite formally, "Kid, could you pass the butter?"

My Mii glanced over, and just as formally slid the butter tin over to Purple Guy. The purple thief looked grateful, if only for a moment.

And I looked back at my 3DS just in time to see that the blue arrow that was leading from Purple Guy and pointing towards Cameron was draining again. If I was to estimate, it'd probably only take one more positive action for Purple Guy to forgive my Mii.

Me and the girls grew a little hopeful at that. Perhaps there WAS a chance to fix things after all.

Once breakfast was done, we all gathered out belongings and headed back out into the Arid Fronter.

I was desperately hoping that we could fix the conflict between my Mii and Purple Guy before we reached the Prince.

We would…

But certainly not the way I intended.

* * *

 **Oh boy, our first quarrel…**

 **Here's hoping that our intrepid party can resolve the conflict and continue on towards the Prince!**

 **Also, there's the added bit about Void Matter. That's DEFINITELY not in the game. So what's it about?**

 **Hmm, well, you'll just have to wait and see. =D**

 **As always, guys, I hope you enjoyed reading this weird little adventure. I still REALLY love this story, and I'm still trying to write on it as much as possible. It's just sometimes hard to write on it because I still know this story isn't as popular as my others.**

 **BUT THAT HASN'T STOPPED ME YET!**

 **Until next time, my dear readers, I wish for you all to…**

 **Stay awesome! =D**


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